Fort Kos-Aral in winter

Taras Shevchenko. Fort Kos-Aral in winter. Paper, sepia (15,9 × 30,2 cm). [Kos-Aral]. [6.X 1848 – 2.IV 1849]. Taras Shevchenko National Museum, inv. g – 452.

In the foreground, obviously, depicted dzhulamijka [=tent] where Shevchenko spent the winter at Kos-Aral. Near it – dog, its image see as number 33, 62.

Start date specified by time of expedition arrival at Kos-Aral, end date – by reporting note of Butakov to V. P. Obruchev that in the spring of 1849 the river was broken on April 2: "n the winter [Syr-Darya] covered with ice thick enough to carry large weights. In the winter of 1848 – 49 ice stood from November 27 to April 2, and river bays and lakes still frozen on October 22" [state public library, Department of Manuscripts, fund I, 1186].

For this story see number 36.

Mentioned in the literature under the names: "Camp on the beach" [A. Novitsky Taras Shevchenko as a painter, Lviv – Moscow, 1914, p. 57, № 255], "Hut on the shore of the sea" [L. Karachevska, Exhibition Shevchenko, Chernigov, 1930, Part 2, p. 19, № 35], "Settlement on the shore of the sea, near the shore – schooners" ["Catalog of V. Tarnowski's museum of ukrainian antiquities", Chernigov, 1900, Vol. II, p. 178, № 214].

Storage areas: V. Tarnowski's Chernihiv museum of ukrainian antiquities – № 214, Chernihiv Regional Historical Museum, Gallery of pictures by T.H. Shevchenko (Kharkiv).

In 1929 exhibited at the exhibition of works of Taras Shevchenko in Chernihiv (Catalogue, p. 19, № 35).

On the back side – light sketch of the same drawings in pencil (not reproduced).

L. I. Vnuchkova

After publication: Taras Shevchenko Complete Works in 10 volumes. – Kyiv: ed. Academy of sciences of UkrSSR, 1962, vol. 8, № 35 (image), p. 22 (notes).