There are many talented people in the world. But so that several abilities are combined in one person, this is a rarity. The great native of Ukraine, about whom we want to tell, is just one of those generously gifted by God. He is known as a great poet, as well as an artist.
In a large family
There is the village of Morintsy in Cherkasy. Here Taras Shevchenko was born (March 9, 1814). The poet died on 03/10/1861. This is the year of the abolition of serfdom. And Shevchenko Taras Grigorievich was "forced." Not a master of himself, his life, pursuits and hobbies.
Father - Grigory Ivanovich - was also a serf. And all of his many children. They are the property of the landowner, whose name was Vasily Engelhardt. According to the father, the ancestors of Taras came from the
Zaporizhzhya Cossack Andrei. And in the family of the mother (Katerina Yakimovna) - immigrants from the Carpathian region.
With unkind stepmother
Soon the family moved to the village of Kirillovka. Shevchenko Taras Grigorievich spent the early years here. Yes, soon grief fell on all of them - my mother died. Father married one widow. She had three children. She especially disliked Tarasika. Katya kept an eye on his older sister - she was kind, compassionate. Soon she got married and left the family. And literally two years after the death of the mother, the father was gone.
Taras turned 12. At first, he worked with a teacher. Then he got to the icon painters. They moved from village to village. Shevchenko Taras Grigoryevich also tended sheep as a teenager. He served the priest.
One thing was good: at school I learned to read and write. "Bogomazy" introduced the boy to the simplest rules of drawing.
In the house of the master
But here he is 16. Shevchenko Taras Grigorievich became the servant of the new landowner - Pavel Engelhardt. The very one whose portrait he will paint later - in 1833. This will be the earliest of the famous watercolor works of Shevchenko. It is made in the style of a then fashionable miniature portrait.
But first, Taras served as a cook. Then he was identified as a Cossack. However, he was already interested in painting and fell in love with it.
Thank you master. Having noticed all this in a serf boy, he, when he was in Vilnius (now Vilnius), sent Taras to Jan Rustem, a teacher at the local university. He was a good portrait painter. And when his master decided to settle in the capital, he took a talented servant with him. Like, you'll be a sort of home painter for me.
Acquaintance in the park
Already 22 years old was Taras. Once he stood in the Summer Garden and redrawed the statues. I started a conversation with one artist, who turned out to be his countryman. It was Ivan Soshenko. He became a close friend of Taras. For a while they even lived in the same apartment. When Shevchenko died, Ivan Maksimovich accompanied his coffin all the way to Kanev.
So, this Soshenko, talking with the Ukrainian poet Yevgeny Grebenka (who was one of the first to understand how talented Shevchenko Taras Grigorievich is an artist), led the newcomer to get acquainted with the “right” people. He was brought to Vasily Grigorovich. This was the secretary of the Academy of Arts. He, a native of Piryatin, largely contributed to the development of art education in Ukraine and in every possible way helped novice painters. He also did everything he could to ransom Shevchenko from serfdom. It was to him that the poet, on the day of his liberation, dedicated the poem "Gaydamaki".
Taras was also introduced to the master of genre scenes from peasant life, the teacher of the Petersburg Academy of Arts Alexei Venetsianov. And with the eminent Karl Bryullov, as well as with the famous poet Vasily Zhukovsky. It was a real elite.
Great sympathy aroused in them Taras Grigorievich Shevchenko. His creative biography was just beginning.
It was important to recognize the exceptional talent of this outstanding Ukrainian.
Free, finally!
Everything rested on his master - Engelhardt. Called for a sense of humanism. It didn’t give anything. A personal petition for Shevchenko by Karl Bryullov himself - this famous academician of painting - only fueled the landowner's desire to weld a round sum on the servant. Professor Venetsianov, adopted in the imperial court, also asked for Shevchenko! But even this high authority did not get things off the ground. With veneration to the master, the most venerable writers went. All in vain!
Taras was discouraged. He so wanted freedom. Hearing about the next refusal, he came to Ivan Soshenko in the most desperate mood. He even threatened to take revenge on his master ...
Here all the artist’s friends were already alarmed. No matter how much greater disaster happened! They decided to act differently. They knew how to buy Engelhardt. They offered him an incredibly large amount for just one serf - 2500 rubles!
And they came from here. Zhukovsky conspired with Bryullov: he will draw his portrait. Then the picture was put on one lottery - in Anichkov Palace. The win was this very portrait. So the 24-year-old serf Shevchenko got freedom. It was in 1838.
How could Taras thank friends for this? He dedicated Zhukovsky "Katerina" - his most significant poem.
In the same year - admission to the Academy of Fine Arts. Shevchenko became both a student and a true friend of Karl Bryullov.
These years are the brightest and most joyful in the life of Kobzar. On horseback, as they say, was Shevchenko Taras Grigorievich. His work was gaining great strength.
Not only art flourished, but also a poetic gift. Only two years later (after being liberated from serfdom), the Kobzar saw the light. In 1842, the Gaydamaki. And in the same year, the painting "Katerina" was created. Many know her. The artist wrote based on his own poem of the same name.
Critics of St. Petersburg and even the perspicacious Belinsky not only did not understand at all, but sharply condemned Ukrainian literature as a whole. The former peasant was particularly affected. They ridiculed even the language in which Shevchenko Taras Grigorievich wrote. In his poems they saw only provincialism.
But Ukraine itself correctly estimated and accepted the poet. He became her prophet.
In a distant link
Came 1845-1846 He draws closer to the Cyril and Methodius society. These were young people who were interested in the development of Slavic peoples. In particular, Ukrainian.
Ten of the circle were arrested, accusing them of creating a political organization. And Shevchenko was convicted. Although the investigators could not clearly demonstrate his connection with the Cyril and Methodius people. He was charged with “violation” for composing “outrageous” verses in content. Yes, even in Little Russian. True, the same famous Belinsky believed that he “received” for his poem “Dream”. For she is a clear satire against the king with the queen.
As a result, the 33-year-old Taras was taken into recruits. Sent as a private in the Orenburg region. There, where this region merges with Kazakhstan. But the worst thing was that the soldier was strictly forbidden to write or draw anything.
He sent a letter to Gogol, with whom he was not personally acquainted. He also sent an envelope to Zhukovsky. With a request to beg for him only mercy - permission to draw. Many other prominent people clamored for him. All in vain. This ban has not been lifted.
Then Shevchenko took up modeling, trying to somehow show his creative nature. He wrote several books - in Russian. This, for example, “Princess”, also “Artist” and also “Gemini”. They have a lot of details from his personal biography.
The poet returned to Petersburg in 1857. The whole was immersed in both poetry and painting. He even wanted to start a family , but failed.
It took me to compile a school textbook - for the people. And in Ukrainian, of course, the language.
In St. Petersburg, he died. At first he was buried in a local cemetery. And after a couple of months, according to the will of the poet himself, the coffin with his ashes was transported to Ukraine. And buried over the Dnieper - on Chernechey Hill. It is near Kanev. He was only 47 years old.
Not a single monument to Kobzar was in the Russian Empire. His widespread perpetuation went after the revolution of 1917. Outside the country, monuments to an outstanding person were erected by the Ukrainian diaspora.
When 200 years from the day of his birth were celebrated in 2014, all the monuments and other objects named in his honor were counted. There were 1060 of them in 32 countries. And on different continents.