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Birthday of Taras Shevchenko, Ukranian poet, prose writer, ethnographer
Study, my brothers!
Think, read,
Learn what is foreign,
but don’t avoid what is ours…
Taras Shevchenko
Taras Grigorievich Shevchenko, Ukrainian poet, writer, artist, ethnographer was born into a peasant family February 25 (March 9), 1814 in the village Moryntsi, Kiev province (today Cherkasy Region).
When Taras was 2 years old, he moved with his parents to the village of Kyrylivka, where he spent his childhood. In 1823, the family suffered misfortune - Taras' mother died, and two years later his father died. The boy became an orphan and was left to himself.
The first who taught Taras literacy was clerk Sovgir Gubskiy; basic drawing techniques he learned from house painters. Shevchenko tended sheep, worked as a laborer, and then started working for the landowner Engelhardt, first as a scullion, then as a boy-servant. Seeing a young man's talent for drawing, Engelhardt first sent him to the Warsaw painter, then to St. Petersburg, to painting master Shiryaev. At times, the young man visited the Hermitage, copied statues in the Summer Garden. Once on a walk, he met an Ukrainian artist I. M. Soshenko.
Soshenko introduced Taras to V. I. Grigorovich, conference secretary of the Academy of Arts; artists A. G. Venezianov and K. P. Briullov, the famous poet V. A. Zhukovsky. They noticed a talented young man and decided to secure his release from bondage for further study at the Academy of Arts. Briullov made a beautiful portrait of Zhukovsky. The portrait was drawn in a private lottery and with the money paid for it Shevchenko was bought from the landowner. In a sign of special respect and deep gratitude, Shevchenko dedicated Zhukovsky one of his major works - the poem "Kateryna."
The studies at the Academy of Arts captured Shevchenko entirely. He worked hard on improving his artistic brush and soon became the favorite Briullov’s student.
In 1840, the first small collection of poems by Shevchenko, "Kobzar" (“The bard”) was issued. In 1841, his poem "Haydamaky" - the largest of Taras’ works – was released as an independent edition. In 1842 – 1843, Shevchenko wrote in Russian such poems as "A Blind Woman", "Funeral Feast", etc.
In 1845, Taras graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts, received the title of the artist and in the spring of the same year he moved to Ukraine. In 1846, in Kiev, he met with historian N. I. Kostomarov and joined the Cyril and Methodius Society, made up of young men who dreamed about the development of Slavic culture and the union of Slavic nations. Soon, however, the members of the organization were arrested and charged with drawing up a political society. Taras was sent as a private in a separate Orenburg corps, Orsk fortress, and was prohibited to write and draw.
In the spring of 1848, Shevchenko was included in the expedition to the Aral Sea (1848-1849). Thanks to his good relations with lieutenant Butakov, he was allowed to paint landscapes of the coast and local folk styles. But soon it became known, the lieutenant was reprimanded and Shevchenko was exiled to Novopetrovskoye village, prohibited to draw again. There Taras was doing modeling, and then again took up his pen and wrote several novels, "Princess," "Artist," "Twins." Shevchenko stayed in Novopetrovskoye from October 1850 to August 1857.
Back in St. Petersburg, Shevchenko settled in the premises of the Academy of Arts, in a room allotted to him, and engaged in poetry and art. In May 1859, Taras went to Ukraine, visited the old familiar places, met with his sister and other relatives, considered buying a house on the coast of the Dnieper. In 1860, he returned to St. Petersburg and took up the compilation of textbooks in the Little Russian language.
February 26 (March 10), 1861 Taras Shevchenko died and was buried at the Smolensk Orthodox cemetery in St. Petersburg. A few months later the coffin of the poet, in accordance with his will, was transferred to Ukraine and was buried on the Chernecha Mountain near the town of Kaniv.
Based on the Presidential Library’s materials: