Adzhy-Bai

Taras Shevchenko. Adzhy-Bai. Stained paper, pencil (16 × 29,2 cm). Adzhy-Bai. [22.VIII 1848]. Taras Shevchenko National Museum, inv. g – 483.

Bottom right – pencil inscription by hand Shevchenko: adzhybay W. c. 16th. Top right ink marked: Number 117 – 70.

Tract Adzhy-Bai or Azhy-Bai (meaning in Kazakh – "man's name", in Turkmenian – "salt spring"), located on the southwestern shore of the Aral Sea, now – Kara Kalpak Republic.

Dated after A. I. Butakov diary, stating that 22.VIII 1848 the expedition was in this tract [see "Day notes of navigation A. I. Butakov on the Aral Sea in 1848 – 1849 years", Tashkent, 1953, p. 22].

Serial number of the figure in the Shevchenko's caption A. Novitsky mistakenly believes date and based on this date of August 16 [see A. Novitsky, Taras Shevchenko as a painter, Lviv – Moscow, 1914, p. 56] that is wrong, because at that time Shevchenko with expedition was in the northern part of the west coast of the Aral Sea.

Storage areas: collections of A. A. Kozachkovsky, V. P. Kakhovski, S. D. Brazol, V. Tarnowski's Chernihiv museum of ukrainian antiquities – № 246, Chernihiv Regional History Museum, Gallery of pictures Shevchenko, Kharkiv.

E. A. Sereda

After publication: Taras Shevchenko Complete Works in 10 volumes. – Kyiv: ed. Academy of sciences of UkrSSR, 1962, vol. 8, № 155 (image), p. 53 (note).