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Taras Shevchenko

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Sketches on the margins of the "Mariana-nun"
poem manuscript (1842)

Taras Shevchenko. Sketches on the margins of the "Mariana-nun" poem manuscript [1841, November 22 – 1842, January 18. St. Petersburg]. Paper, ink, pen. 20,4 × 12,8 cm. Department of manuscripts and textology Shevchenko Literature institute National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, fund 1, № 24.

Outline on page 4 (13 pictures), 5 (13 pictures), 6 (10 pictures), 7 (6 pictures), 9 (3 pictures), 11 (1 picture), 12 (5 pictures), 13 (2 pictures); pagination by author.

Some sketches associated with the text of the poem. Ending figure on page 11 corresponds to the content last four rows the first section of the poem:

"Not listening to old mother,

She lay down to rest.

And tears for Mariana

Barely left the house".

Image of young women with flagon (on the page 12) illustrates first lines of song, which begins the second section of the work:

"Oh, hop, not saw,

At the wedding I was…"

Other sketches are not connected to the text of the poem. On page 4 – six self-portraits (four in profile, one in 3/4 turn, one – a full face). One by one similar profile self-portrait is also on pages 6 and 12. On page 5 – sketch a Cossack in a high cap. Such a profile is in sketches in a letter to his brother M.G. Shevchenko, on illustrations to "History of Suvorov», it is close to type of "Powwow". There are also drawn torso of antique statues, a soldier on drill, and others. On page 6, along with other – sketch of Mr. with horns over the bald head, on page 7 – the figure of Napoleon Bonaparte. Supreme image on page 12: a young woman in the Amazon, which reminds one of the "Sisters Shyshmarov" the portrait by K.P. Briullov [Sidorov A.A. Shevchenko as a painter, master of drawing and printmaker // Taras Shevchenko. – M., 1962. – p. 97]. Such an image (but at full length, in another dress, and without hat) is repeated on page 6.

Date from the time of writing the poem: not before November 22, 1841 (this number Shevchenko put after introduction to poem) and no later than January 18, 1842. The last date on the 1st sheet of manuscript O.O. Korsun made a mark on obtaining a work for publication in the anthology "Sheaf".

Sketches was first mentioned in 1914 by A.P. Novitsky [Novitsky Ol. Taras Shevchenko as a painter. – Lviv, Moscow, 1914. – S. 74. – № 543].

Reproduced for the first time in 1932 by A.P. Novitsky [T. Shevchenko Complete Works. – [Kharkiv, 1932. – T. 8]. – p. 39 – 40. – № 285 – 292. – Table 328 – 329].

Storage sites: from the 1842 – O.O. Korsun-Senior (Kharkiv), from 1891 – O.O. Korsun, Jr. (1914 – Rostov-on-Don); from 1917 – Pushkin House of the USSR (Leningrad); from 1930 – Institute of Taras Shevchenko.

O.G. Vartanova

After publication: T.H. Shevchenko Complete Works in 12 volumes. – K.: Naukova Dumka, 2003, v. 7, p. 437 – 438 (note).