Shevchenko Taras Grigorievich: biography, creativity

There are many talented people in the world. But so that in one person several abilities were connected, it is a rarity. Great native of Ukraine, about which we want to tell, just from such - generously endowed with God. He is known as a great poet, and also as an artist.

In a large family

There is a village in Cherkassy Morintsy. Taras Shevchenko (March 9, 1814) was born here. The poet died on 10.03.1861. This is the year of abolition of serfdom. And Shevchenko Taras Grigoryevich was "bonded". Not the master of himself, his life, pursuits and hobbies.

Father - Grigory Ivanovich - was also a serf. And all of his numerous children. They are the property of the landowner, whose name was Vasily Engelhardt. On the line of the father, the ancestors of Taras came from the Zaporozhye Cossack Andrew. And in the family of his mother (Katerina Yakimovna) - immigrants from Prykarpattya.

With a naughty stepmother

Soon the family moved to the village of Kirillovka. Here Shevchenko Taras Grigorievich spent his early years. Yes, soon the grief struck all of them - my mother died. The father married a widow. She had three children of her own. She especially disliked Tarasika. He was followed by the elder sister Katya - kind, compassionate. Soon she married and left the family. And just two years after his mother's death, there was no father.

Taras turned 12. At first, he worked with the teacher. Then I got to the icon painters. They moved from village to village. Also Shevchenko Taras Grigorevich pass a teenager's sheep. 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 master's house

But to him 16. Shevchenko Taras Grigorievich became servant of the new landowner - Pavel Engelhardt. The one whose portrait he will write later - in 1833. This will be the earliest of the famous watercolor works of Shevchenko. It is made in the style of the then-fashionable miniature portrait.

But first Taras served as a cook. Then he was identified in the Cossacks. However, he was already carried away by painting and fell in love with her.

Thanks to the master. Noticing all this in the serf guy, when he was in Vilna (now Vilnius), he sent Taras to Jan Rustem, a teacher at a local university. He was a good portraitist. And when his master decided to settle in the capital, he took a talented servant with him. Like, you'll have a sort of home painter.

Acquaintance in the park

It was already 22 years old for Taras. Once he stood in the Summer Garden and redrawn 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 Maximovich accompanied his coffin to Kanev himself.

So, this, Soshenko, after talking with the Ukrainian poet Eugene Grebenka (who was one of the first to understand how talented Shevchenko Taras Grigorievich - artist), led the beginner to get acquainted with the "right" people. He was brought to Vasily Grigorovich. It was the secretary of the Academy of Arts. He, himself originally from Piryatin, in many ways contributed to the development of art education in Ukraine and in every way helped novice painters. He also did everything he could to buy Shevchenko from serfdom. It was to him that the poet devoted the poem "Gaydamaky" on the day of his liberation.

Also, Taras was introduced to the master of genre scenes from peasant life, the teacher of the Petersburg Academy of Arts Alexei Venetsianov. And with the famous Karl Bryullov, as well as with the famous poet Vasily Zhukovsky. It was a real elite.

Taras Grigorievich Shevchenko caused them great sympathy. His biography was just beginning.

It was important to recognize the exceptional giftedness of this outstanding Ukrainian.

Free, at last!

Everything rested on his master, Engelhardt. Appealed to the feeling of humanism. It did not work. And the personal petition for Shevchenko himself Karl Bryullov - this famous academician of painting - only warmed the landlord's desire to weld a servant a round sum. For Shevchenko asked and Professor Venetsianov, adopted in the imperial court! But even this high authority did not move the matter from the dead end. The most venerable writers used to bow to the master. All in vain!

Taras was disheartened. He wanted freedom so much. Hearing about another refusal, he came to Ivan Soshenko in the most desperate mood. He even threatened to take revenge on his master ...

All the artist's friends were already flustered. No matter how much greater misfortune has come! They decided to act differently. They knew how to buy Engelhardt. They offered him an incredibly large sum for just one serf - 2500 rubles!

And they appeared that way. Zhukovsky conspired with Bryullov: he would draw his portrait. Then the picture was put on one lottery - in the Anichkov Palace. The winner was this very portrait. So 24-year-old serf Shevchenko got freedom. It was in 1838.

How could Taras thank his friends for this? He dedicated Zhukovsky's "Catherine" - his most significant poem.

In the same year - admission to the Academy of Arts. Shevchenko became both a disciple and a loyal friend of Karl Bryullov.

It was these years - the brightest, joyful in the life of the Kobzar. On the horse, as they say, Shevchenko Taras Grigoryevich was staying. His creativity gained great strength.

Blossomed not only art, but also a poetic gift. Only two years later (after liberation from serfdom) saw the light of "Kobzar". In 1842, he was the "Gaydamaky". And in the same year the painting "Katerina" was created. Many people know it. The artist wrote on the motives of his own poem of the same name.

Critics of St. Petersburg and even the visionary Belinsky not only did not understand, but they also sharply condemned Ukrainian literature in general. The former peasant was particularly affected. They ridiculed even the language in which Shevchenko Taras Grigorievich wrote. In his poetry, only provincialism was seen.

But Ukraine itself correctly and appreciated, and accepted the poet. He became her prophet.

In a distant link

There were 1845-1846 years. He is approaching the Cyril and Methodius Society. They were young people who were interested in the development of Slavic nationalities. In particular, the Ukrainian one.

Ten of the circle were arrested, accusing that they had created a political organization. And Shevchenko was recognized as guilty. Although the investigators could not clearly demonstrate his connection with the Cyrill and Methodians. He was charged with the "violation" of composing "outrageous" verses in content. And even in the Little Russian language. True, the same famous Belinsky believed that he "received" him for his poem "Dream." For she is an obvious satire on the tsar and the queen.

As a result, 33-year-old Taras was taken into recruits. They sent the soldiers to Orenburzhye. There, where this edge is connected 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. I sent an envelope to Zhukovsky. With a request to solicit for him only mercy - permission to draw. Many other prominent people were in trouble for him. All is in vain. This ban was not lifted.

Then Shevchenko took up modeling, tried at least somehow to show his creative nature. I wrote several books in Russian. This, for example, "Princess", also "Artist" and another "Twins". They contain many details from his personal biography.

The poet returned to Petersburg in 1857. All plunged into poetry and painting. I even wanted to have a family, but it did not work out.

I also took up writing a textbook for the people. And in Ukrainian, of course, language.

In St. Petersburg, he passed away. 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 was transported with his ashes to Ukraine. And buried over the Dnieper - on the Black Mountains. It's near Kanev. He was only 47 years old.

Not a single monument to the Kobzar was in the Russian Empire. His universal perpetuation went after the 1917 revolution. Outside the country, monuments to an outstanding person were established by the Ukrainian diaspora.

When in 2014 celebrated 200 years from the date of his birth, then counted all the monuments and other objects named in his honor. There were 1060 of them in 32 countries. And on different continents.