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Taras Shevchenko

Encyclopedia of the life and works

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Chyrkala Tau

Taras Shevchenko. Chyrkala Tau

Taras Shevchenko. Chyrkala Tau. Watercolour (25.8 × 16.7 cm). [VII – VIII 1851].

Location of original is unknown. Described by literary sources. Reproduced by autotype of 1914 ["Russian bibliophile", St. Petersburg, 1914, № 1, between pages. 36 – 37], see also number 2, 4, 11, 17.

Obviously, below on the landscape sheet, as can be seen in reproduction, was the inscription: Drawn from nature by Shevchenko Chyr Kaly Tau.

Watercolor done in gray-blue tone [see "Art and printing", 1911, № 3, p. 141, № 24].

Similar images of Chyrkala Tau mountains reproduced in etching by Br. Zaleski, in the explanatory text Zaleski writed:

"So is one of the mountains which forms a section of Ak-Tau. Climbing alone on a completely flat surface, it attracts the traveler in form that distinguishes it from others. Its borders, more than seven hundred feet in height, formed of chalk, clay and coarse plaster, steeply rising above the plain. Mountain top totally deserted, only occasionally are frail stem steppe plants…" [album «La vie des steppes Kirghizes», Paris, 1865, p. 57].

Besides etching, Br. Zaleski in 1851 made watercolor repeating with minor changes Shevchenko's "Chyrkala Tau" [Taras Shevchenko National Museum, inv. g – 1105].

Watercolor Shevchenko "Chyrkala Tau" is dated tentatively by the residence time of the expedition in the North Ak-Tau.

Images of similar mountains see number 11, 12, 85, 86, 89, 90.

Storage areas: property of L. M. Zhemchuzhnikov, V. V. Kochubej, V. P. Kochubej.

In 1911 was displayed at the exhibition of art works of Taras Shevchenko in Kiev (Product, № 59).

I. M. Verykivska, G. P. Palamarchuk, N. P. Prokopenko

After publication: Taras Shevchenko Complete Works in 10 volumes. – Kyiv: ed. Academy of sciences of UkrSSR, 1964, Vol. 9, № 8 (image), p. 9 – 10 (note).