Two girls

Taras Shevchenko. Two girls. Paper, etching, aquatint 14.6 × 10.7 cm, 20.8 × 13 cm (31.6 × 21.6 cm). [St.Petersburg]. [No sooner than V] 1858. Taras Shevchenko National Museum, inv. g – 655.

Right below the image – label in etching touch: Shevchenko 1858.

Under the image – pencil inscription by Shevchenko hand: To Aleksandra Mikhailovna Kulish Shevchenko.

This is one of the first etchings, aquatint, made by Shevchenko after the exile. Date confirmed on the basis of recording Shevchenko in his diary on May 3, 1858: "…begin the experiments, and then for Murillo". V. I. Kasian suggested that a preliminary exercise to Shevchenko etching, aquatint "Holy family" [see " Etchings Taras Shevchenko", Kyiv, 1963, p. 17 – 20]. G. Chestahivsky related this work to the residence time Shevchenko in Academy of Arts ["Kyiv antiquity", 1895, Vol. II, p. 142 – 143].

Except this engraving, there are three copies of the various states of the etching in Taras Shevchenko National Museum. The Institute of Literature have a test print of the etching of the first condition [fund 1, № 110].

Sketches for this etching made in pencil and ink see number 69, 99. We also know of the existence of preparatory drawings in sepia (see number 157).

The first version of this etching see number 100.

Previous storage of the specific instance: V. Tarnowski's Chernihiv museum of ukrainian antiquities – № 437, Chernihiv Regional History Museum, Gallery of pictures Shevchenko, Kharkiv.

In 1911 a copy of the etching exhibited at Shevchenko's exhibition in Moscow (Product, № 8), in 1929 – at the exhibition of works of Taras Shevchenko in Chernihiv (Catalogue, p. 18, № 8), in 1939 – at the Republican Shevchenko Jubilee Exhibition in Kyiv (Product, № 375).

K. V. Chumak

After publication: Taras Shevchenko Complete Works in 10 volumes. – Kyiv: ed. Academy of sciences of UkrSSR, 1963, v. 10, № 28 (image), p. 19 (note).