Shevchenko T.G., (1814-1861), poet and artist

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SHEVCHENKO Taras Grigorievich (1814-1861, St. Petersburg), Ukrainian poet and artist. He came to St. Petersburg in 1831 as a serf (domestic servant) of P.V. Engelgardt. From 1833 he was an apprentice to V.G. Shiryaev, a master painter. In 1833-38 he took part in the interior painting of a number of St. Petersburg buildings. During this time he met K.P. Bryullov, V.A. Zhukovsky, A.G. Venetsianov, E.P. Grebenka due to the sympathy of I.M. Soshenko; in addition to it, he attracted the attention of the Committee of the Association for the Encouragement of the Arts and received a retainer from 1839 to 1842. Shevchenko studied painting in the drawing classes of the Academy of Arts and the Association for the Encouragement of the Arts. In 1838 he was emancipated from serfdom thanks to Bryullov, Zhukovsky, Venetsianov, Matvey and Mikhail Y. Vielgorsky et al. In 1838-45 he was accepted into the Academy of Arts into the workshop of Bryullov, attended lectures at the University of St. Petersburg, Medical Surgical Academy etc. He attained a wide renown after his first collection of poems in Ukrainian called The Kobza-Player was published in St. Petersburg, 1840. The first half of the 1840s came to be the time of Shevchenko's intense and fruitful work as an artist and writer (poems Haidamaks, Blindwoman, Dream etc). In 1845 he left for Ukraine, where he was arrested in 1847 as a member of the secret Cyril and Methodius Society and brought to St. Petersburg. He was kept in the prison of the Third Division at 9 Panteleymonovskaya Street (present-day Pestelya Street), to be exiled as a soldier to Orenburg and prohibited from writing and painting. He returned to St. Petersburg in 1858; on his return, he approached Sovremennik and Iskra journals, associated with V.S. Kurochkin and N.S. Kurochkin, N.G. Chernyshevsky, Y.P. Polonsky, I.S. Turgenev et al. In 1860 his The Kobza-Player was published in Russian and Ukrainian; these books represent the most complete poetical works which appeared in the lifetime of the writer. In 1860 the Council of the Academy of Arts granted Shevchenko the title of the Academic of Engraving. Descriptions of St. Petersburg, a city he loved, can be found in many of his prose and poetical works, as well as in Diaries. He changed over 10 addresses in St. Petersburg; in 1833-38 he lived in Krestovsky's house (8 Zagorodny Avenue; memorial plaque), in 1840-44 he resided in Kastyurina's house (8 Fifth Line of Vasilievsky Island, memorial plaque), in 1839 and 1858-61 he lodged in the principal building of the Academy of Arts (two memorial plaques, from 1964 a memorial workshop has functioned here). He was buried at Smolenskoe cemetery, with his funeral attended by many men of letters and public figures. After a few months he was re-interred near Kanev, in Ukraine. A monument to Shevchenko (2001, sculptor Leo Mol) was erected in the public garden next to Petrogradskaya metro station; Shevchenko Square (nameless until 2001) is situated here as well. The name of Shevchenko was also given to a Street in 1961 (former Simanskaya Street). In 1939-2001 the name of Shevchenko was attached to Rumyantsevskaya Square.

References: Моренец Н. И. Шевченко в Петербурге: По памят. местам жизни и творчества. Л., 1960; Жур П. В. Шевченковский Петербург. Л., 1964; Марголис Ю. Д. Т. Г. Шевченко и Петербургский университет. Л., 1983.

D. N. Cherdakov. Bryullov Karl Pavlovich
Chernyshevsky Nikolay Gavrilovich
Engelgardt Pavel Vasilievich
Grebenka Evgeny Pavlovich
Grebenka Nikolay Pavlovich
Kurochkin A.M.
Kurochkin Nikolay Stepanovich
Polonsky Yakov Petrovich
Shevchenko Taras Grigorievich
Shiryaev Vasily Grigorievich
Soshenko Ivan Maximovich
the Vielgorskys, Counts
Turgenev Ivan Sergeevich
Venetsianov Alexander Gavrilovich
Zhukovsky Vasily Andreevich
5th Line of Vasilievsky Island/Saint Petersburg, city, house 8
Pestelya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 9
Shevchenko Square/Saint Petersburg, city
Shevchenko St./Saint Petersburg, city
Zagorodny Avenue/Saint Petersburg, city, house 8
Моренец Н. И. Шевченко в Петербурге: По памят. местам жизни и творчества. Л., 1960
Жур П. В. Шевченковский Петербург. Л., 1964
Марголис Ю. Д. Т. Г. Шевченко и Петербургский университет. Л., 1983 Society for the Encouragement of the Arts
Academy of Arts
Academy of Arts
Sovremennik (Contemporary), journal
Iskra (The Spark), journal, 1858-73
2000