On the life of poet and artist Taras Shevchenko - in the materials of the Presidential Library electronic collection

9 March 2018

March 9, 2018 marks the 204th anniversary of the birth of the poet and artist Taras Grigorievich Shevchenko. A broad idea of ​​this man who was able to realize his multifaceted talent, despite the trials sent by fate, can be compiled on the basis of the materials of the Presidential library electronic collection. The collection includes literary works by T. Shevchenko, monographs, essays and articles devoted to his life and creative heritage and much more.

"Throughout his life, with all his poetry, Shevchenko showed how strong and courageous a man can be, how incompetent he can be, how great his honesty is, how terrible his anger is and how unwilling his will to freedom and independence is. Throughout his life and work he showed what monstrous obstacles a person can overcome to achieve his goal", - M. Zoshchenko wrote in his 1939 book "Taras Shevchenko: stories and tales".

Truly, the poet’s life was not easy: he was born in the family of a serf, early lost his parents, the child was in the service of the house of the landowner P. Engelhardt. A part of the autobiography, written by T. Shevchenko in 1860 at the request of the editorial office of the magazine "Narodnoye chtenie", is devoted to a difficult childhood.

From an early age Taras Shevchenko showed interest in painting. "As a Cossack, he secretly copied a picture of the Suzdal school stolen from the clerk's pencil stained by the clerk of the Suzdal school, decorating the Pan's chambers", - we read in the autobiography, where Shevchenko also tells how he collected pictures of the various historical heroes in the inns with the "intention of copying them in-exactly".

In 1832 following P. Engelhardt, T. Shevchenko moved to St. Petersburg, where, according to the "persistent" request, the boy was sent to the master painter for training. "Very often, going to painting work, passed the future writer through the Summer Garden and here, as before on the popular prints, could not resist the temptation to draw some of the statues that adorn the garden," - A. M. Skvortsov writes in the book 1929 "Life of the artist Taras Shevchenko".

It was in the Summer Garden that a fateful meeting took place - the young man got acquainted with the painter Ivan Soshenko. In addition, it was "in this garden and at the same time he began to make sketches in verse art. Of the numerous attempts he subsequently printed only one - the ballad "Prichinna"", - Shevchenko wrote in his autobiography.

Ivan Soshenko noticed the talent of a young self-taught artist: "A shy young man shyly expressed to him a passionate desire to study painting, and he began to study with him on holidays. In one of these lessons Taras told him about his childhood, touching the soul of the good Soshenko with his sad story. Unable to help him personally, he presented it to the conference secretary of the Academy of Arts V. I. Grigorovich, who introduced him to the poet V. A. Zhukovsky, the court painter Venetsianov and other influential people. They became interested in his remarkable abilities and sad destiny and took a great part in it", - says the 1910 edition “Sorrows of Taras: Childhood and Life of Taras Shevchenko”.

Participation was really great: it was thanks to his new acquaintances that Taras Shevchenko gained the long-awaited freedom, but for this he had to try. Here is how the poet later described these events: "In 1837, I. M. Soshenko introduced him to the conference secretary of the Academy of Arts V. I. Grigorovich with the goal of freeing him from his woeful state. V. I. Grigorovich asked about him V. A. Zhukovsky, and V. A. Zhukovsky, having first learned the price from the landowner, asked K. P. Bryullov to write it, V. A. Zhukovsky, a portrait for the imperial family in order to play it in the lottery in the royal family. Great Bryullov readily agreed. The portrait is written. V. Zhukovsky with the help of Count M. Y. Vielgorsky arranged a lottery in 2500 rubles bank notes, and this price was bought by the freedom of Taras Shevchenko in 1838, April 22".

In the same year Shevchenko was admitted to the Academy of Arts, where he became a disciple of famous Karl Bryullov. Here, the young man's poetic talent flourished to the full.

The first Ukrainian collection of poems was published in St. Petersburg in 1840. According to M. Zoshchenko in the book "Taras Shevchenko": "His first book "Kobzar" made an unprecedented impression on the readers - it was so strong, deafening, extraordinary and effective".

In 1848 "Artist Shevchenko, for writing outrageous and highly bold poems, as gifted with a strong physique, to determine the rank and file in the Orenburg separate building", - quotes the already mentioned edition "The Life of the Artist Taras Shevchenko". "Under the strictest supervision, forbidding to write and draw", - added the Russian Emperor Nicholas I.

For ten years the poet and artist had led a heavy soldier's life in remote garrisons, and only on the eve of his liberation began to keep a diary. Released later in the form of a separate book, "Diary" "is one of the remarkable, original works of art", - reads the preface to the 1939 edition, illustrated by Shevchenko's works.

Taras Shevchenko returned in Saint-Petersburg in 1858, where he immediately became the center of attention, entered the circle of writers and artists. "Even letters are not allowed to write: you need to hide somewhere. I'm afraid, as it were, not to become a fashionable figure", - the journal's "Istorichesky Vestnik" quotes the poet as saying. Unfortunately, Taras Shevchenko fate did not allow to fully enjoy the long-awaited recognition and happiness - in 1860 he died from a serious illness.