Punishment by rods

Taras Shevchenko. Punishment by rods. Paper, ink, bistre (28.8 × 21.5 cm). [XI 1856 – 10.V 1857]. Taras Shevchenko National Museum, inv. g – 842.

In the background there on the mountain – Novopetrovsk fort.

Regarding this figure B. G. Sukhanov-Podkolzin, who studied in the drawing Shevchenko, said:

"Recalling his soldiery, Shevchenko pulled out of the dusty folder whole series of drawings, one of them represented the punishment by rods. Explaining this pattern, how it was carried out torture, and seeing that I'm going to cry, he said, to my great joy, explained to me that this atrocity has come a desired end" ["Kyiv antiquity", 1885, Vol. II, p. 235].

In literature titled "In the old time" [N. Sumtsov, From Ukrainian antiquity. Figures and pictures by Shevchenko, Kharkov, 1905, p. 109].

Storage areas: collection of M. M. Lazarevsky, V. M. Lazarevsky, S. V. Lazarevsky, S. S. Botkin, Russian museum, Institute of Taras Shevchenko, Kharkiv – Kyiv, Gallery of pictures Shevchenko, Kharkiv, Central State museum of Taras Shevchenko Kyiv.

In 1951 was displayed at the exhibition Art of the Ukrainian SSR in Moscow (catalog, p. 105).

G. P. Palamarchuk

After publication: Taras Shevchenko Complete Works in 10 volumes. – Kyiv: ed. Academy of sciences of UkrSSR, 1964, Vol. 9, № 68 (image), p. 41 (note).