Meeting of Taras Bulba with the sons

Taras Shevchenko. Meeting of Taras Bulba with the sons.
After the novel "Taras Bulba" by N.V.Gogol. 1842. [St. Petersburg].
Paper, Sepia. 28,1 × 30,2 cm.
State Hermitage Museum (St. Petersburg), № 997/r.-r.

Left bottom author's date and signature: 1842 // Shevchenko. On the mat inscription: Taras Bulba.

Shevchenko recreated the episode coming home from Kyiv school two sons of Taras Bulba – Ostap and Andrei. The father met the children of badinage with their clothes, "priestly cassocks", what offended Ostap said:

"Though you are my father, but as you laugh, then by golly, beat down" […] Taras eagerly began to tuck sleeve, saying: "How do you want me to fight, unless the fists?".

Shevchenko was the first artist who turned to illustrating the story "Taras Bulba" by N.V. Gogol, using a second, completely reworked by author edition of the novel [Works by Nicholas GoGol. – SPb., 1842. – Vol. 2. – p. 59].

First information about the picture with the name "Scene from Taras Bulba by Gogol" provided V.P. Gorlenko in the article "Drawings, pictures and etchings of Shevchenko" [Kievan antiquity. – 1888. – № 6. – p. 82], indicating that it was the property of M.D. Bykov (1812 – 1884). M.D. Bykov, was the artist and the official of the Art Academy; he could get drawing from the Shevchenko. After selling off M.D. Bykov's collections picture belonged to V.B. Antonovich. Later, according to M.F. Bilyashivsky, kidnapped in Antonovich and was in the estate of the landowner Smetana in Poltava province. [Department of manuscripts and textology Institute of Literature. T.H. Shevchenko National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, fund 146, № 3; Novitsky Ol. Taras Shevchenko as a painter. – Lviv, Moscow, 1914. – p. 75. – № 565]

First published and reproduced in 1951 by M.I. Matsapura [Matsapura M. New in heritage Shevchenko // Ukraine. – 1951. – № 8. – p. 30].

There is a free copy of this drawing with oil paints work by I.V. Hudovsky, Shevchenko's fellow of the Arts Academy (Literary and Memorial House-Museum of Taras Shevchenko (Kyiv), № 17).

Storage areas: property of M.G. Savina; later – Museum M.G. Savina, 1925 – The State Russian Museum (St. Petersburg); from 1937 – State Museum of Ethnography (Leningrad); from 1941 – the State Hermitage Museum (St. Petersburg).

Exhibitions:

1940. Leningrad. Exhibition of 175 years of the Hermitage;

1952. Leningrad. Gogol exhibition at the Hermitage;

1964. Kyiv – Moscow. Shevchenko Jubilee Exhibition [Jubilee art exhibition on the 150-year anniversary of the birth of T.H. Shevchenko: Product. – Kiev, 1964. – p. 6].

V.O. Sudak

After publication: T.H. Shevchenko Complete Works in 12 volumes. – K.: Naukova Dumka, 2003, v. 7, p. 88 – 89 (image), p. 386 (notes).