2. Self-portrait, 1840
Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko
( March 9. 1814 – March 10. 1861)
was a Ukrainian poet and artist.
He is also known under the
name Kobzar after his most famous
literary work, a collection of poems
entitled Kobzar.
His literary heritage is regarded to
be the foundation of
modern Ukrainian literature and, to
a large extent, the
modern Ukrainian language.
Shevchenko is also known for many
masterpieces as a painter and an
illustrator
3. Life
Born into a serf peasant family of Cossack
descent in the village of Moryntsi, of Kyiv
Governorate of the Russian Empire (now
in Cherkasy Oblast,Ukraine) Shevchenko
grew up in the neighboring village of
Kyrylivka that today carries the
name Shevchenkove.
At the age of eleven Taras became an
orphan when, in the spring of 1825, his
father died a serf in corvée.
4. First successes
He began writing poetry while he was a serf and in
1840 his first collection of poetry, Kobzar, was
published. Ivan Franko, the renowned Ukrainian
poet in the generation after Shevchenko, had this to
say of the compilation: "Kobzar 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 was released.
Shevchenko also wrote plays. In 1842, he released a
part of the tragedy Mykyta Haidai and in 1843 he
completed the drama Nazar Stodolia.
In 1844, distressed by the condition of Ukrainian
regions in the Russian Empire, Shevchenko decided
to capture some of his homeland's historical ruins
and cultural monuments in an album of etchings,
which he called Picturesque Ukraine.
Gypsy Fortune Teller, 1841. Oil on canvas.
Winner of the 1841 Silver Medal at
the Imperial Academy of Arts.
5. Exile
On March 22, 1845, the Council of the Academy
of Arts granted Shevchenko the title of an artist.
Upon the society's suppression by the authorities,
Shevchenko was arrested along with other
members Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and
Methodius on April 5, 1847.
Shevchenko was imprisoned in Saint Petersburg.
He was exiled as a private with the Russian
military Orenburg garrison at Orsk, near the Ural
Mountains.
Tsar Nicholas I, confirming his sentence, added
to it, "Under the strictest surveillance, without
the right to write or paint."
In May 1859, Shevchenko got permission to return
to his native Ukraine.
He intended to buy a plot of land not far from the
village of Pekariv. In July, he was arrested on a
charge of blasphemy, but was released and
ordered to return to St. Petersburg.
Self-portrait as a soldier,
1847
6. Death of Shevchenko
Taras Shevchenko spent the last years of his life
working on new poetry, paintings, and
engravings, as well as editing his older works.
Shevchenko died in Saint Petersburg on March
10, 1861, the day after his 47th birthday.
He was first buried at the Smolensk Cemetery
in Saint Petersburg. However, fulfilling
Shevchenko's wish, expressed in his poem
"Testament" ("Zapovit"), to be buried
in Ukraine, his friends arranged to transfer his
remains by train to Moscow and then by horsedrawn wagon to his native land.
Dogged by terrible misfortune in love and life,
the poet died seven days before
the Emancipation of Serfs was announced.
His works and life are revered by Ukrainians
and his impact on Ukrainian literature is
immense.
7. Taras Shevchenko on the current banknote of
100 Transnistrian rubles(currency of
unrecognized state on Moldavian territory)
Taras Shevchenko on the obsoleted
1000000 karbovanets banknote
Previous 100 hryvnia banknote
Taras Shevchenko on the current
100hryvnia banknote
8. There are many monuments to Shevchenko in
Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv, Luhansk, Saint Petersburg,
Kazakhstan, Canada, Washington, New York
City, Paris, Ontario, Brazil
9. Shevchenko's "Testament", (Zapovit, 1845), has been translated into more than 60
languages and set to music in the 1870s by H. Hladky. The poem enjoys a status
second only to Ukraine’s national anthem.
Testament (Zapovit)
When I am dead, bury me
Oh bury me, then rise ye up
In my beloved Ukraine,
And break your heavy chains
My tomb upon a grave mound high
And water with the tyrants' blood
Amid the spreading plain,
The freedom you have gained.
So that the fields, the boundless steppes, And in the great new family,
The Dnieper's plunging shore
The family of the free,
My eyes could see, my ears could hear With softly spoken, kindly word
The mighty river roar.
Remember also me.
When from Ukraine the Dnieper bears
Into the deep blue sea
The blood of foes ... then will I leave
-Taras Shevchenko,
These hills and fertile fields -25 December 1845,
I'll leave them all and fly away
PereiaslavTranslated by John Weir,
To the abode of God,
Toronto, 1961
And then I'll pray .... But until that day
I nothing know of God.
