Peter I

Taras Shevchenko. Portrait of Peter I. Engraving (14,5 × 12,3 cm) placed before the first page of the book "Russian generals" by N.A.Polevoj.

Peter I (1672 – 1725) – Russian emperor.

In the preface to the book states: "Portrait of Peter the Great copied from famous paintings Lacroix and verified with the mask removed from the Peter the Great, the one stored in the Academy of Arts " [Polevoj N. Russian generals. – St. Petersburg, 1845. – C. X]. The names of the artist Lacroix among the authors of portraits of Peter is not found. In the preface, perhaps, the mistakes in writing the names of the artist [Palamarchuk G.P. Portraits painted by famous artist // Visual art. – 1981. – № 2. – P. 19].

D.A. Rovinsky attributes this portrait of Peter to "Undefined portraits of the new origin", where under "Delaroche collected type" provides a description of several engravings, published in 1843 in Paris and St. Petersburg, with a composition close to Shevchenko's portrait of Peter I [Rovinsky D.A. Detailed dictionary of Russian engraved portraits. – St. Petersburg, 1889. – T. 2. – S. 1381 – 1382].

Observations by D.A. Rovinsky suggest that Shevchenko enjoyed working on a portrait engraving, done Enrikel DuPont (1843) from picture by Paul Delaroche (1842). He could know the portraits of Louis Peter Caravaque (1716 and 1722), painted from nature, which marked a great similarity. They repeatedly copied, used in paintings and engravings.

N.P. Prokopenko

After publication: T.H. Shevchenko Complete Works in 12 volumes. – Kyiv: Naukova Dumka, 2003, v. 7, p. 178 – 179 (image), p. 417 (note).