Repin designed a hanging palette because of pain in his right hand
In the 1890s Repin began to suffer pains in his right hand: from constant painting, a gradual atrophy of the muscles between the thumb and forefinger was developing. The artist could no longer paint with his right hand, and the pain would not even let him hold a palette in it. Repin then designed a suspended palette, fastened to the waist with straps, which considerably eased his work. Ilya Repin's suspended palette is captured in his self-portrait of 1915; today the palette is kept in the Repin museum-estate "Penaty"
