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Taras
Hryhorovich Shevchenko,
the great Ukrainian poet,
artist and thinker, was
born on March 9, 1814, in
the village of Moryntsi in
central Ukraine, then part
of the Russian Empire.
His parents, H.
Shevchenko and K.
Shevchenko, were serfs on
the land of V. Engelhardt.
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Shevchenko Art
T.Shevchenko
Self-portrait with candle,
1861 His grandfather I. Shevchenko,
who was a witness of the Haidamak
movement, had a significant
influence on Taras.
Taras's father was
literate, and he sent his son to be
educated as an apprentice to a
deacon.
In 1823, Taras's mother
died, and his father married for a
second time.
In 1825, his father also
died. For some time little Taras, now
an orphan, served as a houseboy
and was in training as a servant.
A talent for drawing
showed itself in the boy quite early.
When he was 14 years old, he
became a domestic servant to P.
Engelhardt.
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In the spring of
1829, Taras travelled with P.
Engelhardt to Vilnius,
Lithuania.
There he studied
painting under an
experienced craftsman. The
Polish rebellion for national
liberation from Russia began
in November, 1830, and
Engelhardt left for the
Russian capital, St.
Petersburg.
Shevchenko
stayed with the lord's
servants in Vilnius and was
witness to the revolutionary
events.
Shevchenko went
to St. Petersburg at the
beginning of 1831. In 1832,
the lord "contracted" him to
the master painter V.
Shyryayev, with whom the
lad experienced a hard school
of professional training.
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Shevchenko Art
Self-portrait, 1845
Noted writers and artists
bought Shevchenko out of serfdom.
The 2,500 rubles required
were raised through a lottery in which the
prize was a portrait of the poet,
Zhukovsky, painted by Karl Bryullov.
The release from serfdom was
signed on April 22, 1838. A committee of
the Association for the Encouragement of
Artists had examined drawings by
Shevchenko and approved them.
In 1838, Shevchenko was
accepted into the Academy of Arts as an
external student, practicing in the
workshop of K. Bryullov.
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In January, 1839,
Shevchenko was accepted as
a resident student at the
Association for the
Encouragement of Artists,
and at the annual
examinations at the Academy
of Arts, Shevchenko was
given the Silver Medal for a
landscape.
In 1840 he was
again given the Silver Medal,
this time for his first oil
painting, The Beggar Boy
Giving Bread to a Dog.
8. Shevchenko began to write
poetry even before he was freed from
serfdom. In 1840, the world first saw the
Kobzar, Shevchenko's first collection of
poetry.
Later Ivan Franko wrote that
this book, "immediately revealed, as it
were, a new world of poetry.
It burst forth like a spring of
clear, cold water, and sparkled with a
clarity, breadth and elegance of artistic
expression not previously known in
Ukrainian writing."
In 1841, the epic poem
Haidamaky appeared as a separate
volume.
In September of that same
year, Shevchenko got his third Silver
Medal -- for his picture The Gypsy
Fortune Teller.
A significant work is the
painting Kateryna, based on his poem.
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9. In 1843, the poet left St.
Petersburg, and at the end of
May he was in Ukraine. In Kiev,
he met M. Maksymovich, P.
Kulish and others, and did many
paintings.
That summer, the poet visited the
sites of the former Zaporozhian
Cossack Sich, and in September
he went to Kyrylivka where, after
a fourteen-year separation, he
saw his brothers and sisters. In
Ukraine Shevchenko did many
pencil studies for a projected book
of engravings to be called
Picturesque Ukraine. At the end
of February Shevchenko returned
to St. Petersburg.
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Taras Shevchenko, the son of serfs, was born on the estate of Baron
Vasili Engelhardt on March 9, 1814. One of six children, at his birth he
was little more than another possession of his lord and master. The place
of his birth was the village of Moryntsi, some 120 miles or 200 kilometres
to the south of Kiev, an area which in earlier generations had been the
home of the Zaporizhian Cossacks. In 1816 the Shevchenko family moved
to the village of Kirilivka (now Shevchenkove), where Taras spent his
childhood years. Amongst the peasantry, burdened by the brutal and
unjust system of serfdom, tales of these folk heroes and their struggles
for freedom, were commonplace, a relief from the toils of the day, as well
as a hope for a better future. It was in such an environment that the
young Taras and his siblings were raised.
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Shevchenko's parents,
Hryhori and Kateryna, worked the
fields of Baron Engelhardt, as did
his older brother Mykyta.
As was usual in those
times, the serfs laboured five days
for their master, and one for
themselves.
His father also worked
on occasion as a chumak, a
teamster, hauling salt for Baron
Engelhardt from southern Ukraine.
It appears that his father, on
occasion, took Taras with him on
these trips, as young children were
not obliged to work for their
master.
During these trips, the
young boy was able to see some of
the world, even major centres such
as Elizavetgrad and Uman.
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When Shevchenko
arrived in Nizhny Novgorod,
he was informed that entrance
to the capital was forbidden
him.
In consequence, he
was compelled to live about
six months in Nizhny. "Now I
am free... as free as a dog on a
chain" he wrote from Nizhny
Novgorod to his friend, the
famous Russian actor, M.
Shchepkin.
Shevchenko's release
returned the pen to the poet.
He began by rereading,
correcting and rewriting his
earlier works. Simultaniously
he begun to work on a new
poem, The Neophytes.
The scene of the
poem was transferred to the
ancient Roman Empire. It is
easy to surmise why that was
done.
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The reader readily saw through the
camouflage and understood that Nero
was Nicholas I, the patricians were the
landowners and upper classes
generally, the plebs were the people,
and the Neophytes were the
revolutionaries, champions of the
people's happiness.
In one of the poems written in Nizhny
Novgorod, Shevchenko tells his muse:
With lips that know no lie
Teach but the truth to preach...
To preach the truth - that, to
Shevchenko was his lofty duty. And he
remained true to that precept all his
life. Shevchenko served the truth as a
man, as a citizen, as an artist, and as a
master of the pen, who profoundly
understood the power of words and
selected them as his weapons in the
struggle for the happiness of the
degraded and the oppressed.
14. "In Moscow I was particularly pleased to find among celebrated Moscovites
the very warmest cordiality toward me personally, and unfeigned
appreciate of my poetry."
A wave of new
impressions overwhelmed
the poet.
He realized that
an intense struggle was
beginning to gain
momentum.
It was waged by
the new revolutionary-
democratic camp in the
Russian Empire, which was
striving to emancipate the
working people and destroy
the autocracy.
So he hastened to
St. Petersburg, although the
freedom that awaited him
there was but a phantom,
since he would be under
constant police surveillance.
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15. The Ukrainian poet was not only a participant
in the revolutuionary movement of the 1860s,
but he exerted a fruitful influence on the
development of progressive thought in Russia.
No wonder Chernyshevsky considered
Shevchenko an "incontestable authority" on the
pesant question which was of special concern
to the revolutionary democrats.
In 1859 Shevchenko sojourned in Ukraine for
the last time. He visited places where he had
spent his childhood, he saw his relatives, and
observed the same life of poverty and slavery,
the same drudgery for a crust of bread as
before. There, too, he was under constant
police surveillance. Gendarmes and spies
evesdropped on his conversations with the
peasants. Finally, he was arrested again.
The poet was barred from living in Ukraine
and was forced to return to Ukraine. He lived
in the attic of the Academy of Art in St.
Petersburg, and enthusiastically busied himself
with engraving, seeing it as a marvelous
means for the propagation of art.
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16. My Destiny - an autobiographical essay by Taras Shevchenko
My own destiny, truthfully
presented, may lead to
deeper reflection, not only on
the part of the common man,
but also those upon whom
this common man is so
completely dependent. Both
sides should profit by this.
Such is the reason why I
cannot refuse to reveal in
public a few sad facts about
myself. All that I can do now
to comply with your wish is
to give a brief account of the
actual course of my life.
After having read these lines
you will appreciate those
feelings which grieve my
heart and oppress my spirit.
17. My Destiny - an autobiographical essay by Taras Shevchenko
One day during our stat
in Vilna, my master and his wife
went to a ball of the local nobility
to celebrate the name day of His
Majesty Tsar Nikolai Pavlovich.
The servants were
asleep and the house was wrapped
in complete darkness.
In my solitary room I
Lit a candle, uncovered my stolen
treasures and having selected
from among them the picture
"Cossack Platov," I began to copy.
18. My Destiny - an autobiographical essay by Taras Shevchenko
By profession
Shevchenko was an artist.
His essay clearly
indicates his deep interest in
art and his burning desire
as a child to become an
artist.
His fame as a poet
has surpassed his fame as
an artist but to understand
his life both careers must be
studied.
19. My Destiny - an autobiographical essay by Taras Shevchenko
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