In April Repin published a letter to Diaghilev in Niva (The Field) in which he criticised the journal World of Art for following Western decadent models and accused it of animosity towards the Academy and of denigrating the works of Russian artists of the nineteenth century and of the Polish artist Matejko. Repin was also critical of the works exhibited at the First International Exhibition of Paintings. In response Diaghilev published a letter in World of Art in which he stressed inconsistency in Repin's views. This polemics resulted in Repin leaving the World of Art.