Portrait of L. Polusmak

Taras Shevchenko. Portrait of Lukeria Polusmakova. Stained paper, Italian pencil (34 × 23.3 cm). [St.Petersburg]. [Summer 1860]. Taras Shevchenko National Museum, inv. g – 299.

On the back of the picture at the top – the ink inscription by hand B. Mikeshin:

Hereby certify that this drawing made by the poet Shevchenko and gave to my father Academician M. Mikeshin when he was in the Academy of Fine Arts together with Shevchenko. September 17, 1900, St. Petersburg. B. Mikeshin.

The portrait dates by the time of Shevchenko acquaintance with Lukeria. This acquaintance was the summer of 1860 in the country house of N. Zabila-Belozerska in Strelna near St. Petersburg, where Kartashevski left Lukeria at the time of his departure abroad. This was described by the daughter of N. Zabila-Belozerska – N. M. Kibalchich: "My family in the summer [1860] lived in the country in Strelna with Lukeria" [N. M. Kibalchich, Memories of Shevchenko, "Kyiv antiquity", 1890, Vol. II, p. 177]. The letter Shevchenko to N. Zabila-Belozerska on 18 September 1860 shows that the friendly relations between Shevchenko and Lukeria had already torn.

The inscription on the back of the portrait confirms that this is the same picture, about which M. J. Mikeshin wrote in his memoirs. "He [Shevchenko]… wanted to tear them very cute portrait sketched by his faithless "love", but I have took this portrait away from him and store it until now" ["Kobzar with additions of Kostomarov and Mikeshin memoirs on Shevchenko", Prague, 1876, p. XXII].

In 1930 exposed at the exhibition at the Shevchenko Kyiv.

Storage areas: property of M. J. Mikeshin, B. M. Mikeshin, S. S. Botkin, Russian Museum, Institute of Taras Shevchenko, Kharkiv, Gallery of pictures Shevchenko, Kharkiv.

V. Ja. Tkachenko

After publication: Taras Shevchenko Complete Works in 10 volumes. – Kyiv: ed. Academy of sciences of UkrSSR, 1963, v. 10, № 55 (image), p. 35 – 36 (note).