Autograph of letter to G.S. Tarnovsky

Taras Shevchenko. "Catherine." Drawed outline of picture. 1843, Jan. 25. St. Petersburg. Paper, pencil, ink pen. Department of manuscripts and textology Shevchenko Literature institute National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, fund 1, № 212.

Sketch done on the 3rd page of Shevchenko's letter to G.S. Tarnowskі on January 25, 1843. Author of the letter gives a description of the content of "Catherine" picture and information about the circumstances of its creation:

"It is here that I painted two paintings this summer and hid, thinking that you arrive for the pictures, you see, our, I them not show to russians. But still found out Skobelev and one lure from me, and the other is in me, and this is not traveled by any Moskal (for this, you see, my "Catherine"), I think to send it to you, and how much it will cost, then this is your thing, though a piece of bacon, then it is good in a foreign land. I drew Catherine while she parted with her officer and return to a village; in the area under the hut grandfather sitting, slice a spoon and sadly look at Catherine, and she does not cry unfortunate and raises the front red skirt because already know, little doeth… and Muscovite woo for his troops only dust falls – a dog is ugly reprimand him and allegedly barking. On one side tomb, on the tomb a windmill, and there has just plain dreaming. So my picture. "

Dated at time of writing this letter.

First Shevchenko's letter to Tarnowskі published in 1862 [Shevchenko's letters // Osnova (Basis). – 1862. – № 5. – P. 5 – 6].

Figure reproduces the first time in 1914 by A.P. Novitsky [Novitsky Ol. Taras Shevchenko as a painter. – Lviv, Moscow, 1914. – T. 71].

Storage areas: from 1843 – property of G.S. Tarnowskі, from 1853 – a collection of V. Tarnowskі, Sr., in 1866 – a collection of V. Tarnowskі, Jr., from 1899 – V. Tarnowski's Chernihiv museum of ukrainian antiquities, from 1925 – Chernihiv Historical Museum, from 1933 – Institute of Taras Shevchenko's Commissariat of the USSR, from 1936 – Shevchenko Institute of Ukrainian Literature.

Exhibition: 1929. Chernihiv. Shevchenko exhibition [Karachevska A. Exhibition Shevchenko: conductor. – Chernigov, 1930. – P. 16. – № 8].

V. M. Yatsyuk

After publication: T.H. Shevchenko Complete works in 12 volumes. – Kyiv: Naukova Dumka, 2003, v. 7, p. 318 – 319 (image), p. 452 (note).