Taras Shevchenko Self-Portrait (1861, Oil)

Each country has its own brilliant poets; Germany has J. W. Goethe, Great Britain has Robert Burns and Russia has Alexander Pushkin. Ukraine is famous for Taras Shevchenko – an outstanding Ukrainian artist.

T. Shevchenko was born on the 9th of March, 1814 into a family of serfs, in the village of Moryntsi, Cherkasy region. His childhood was very hard: he lost his mother at the age of 9 and his father died when he was 11 years. The boy was an orphan, he grew in poverty and misery. At the age of 14, he become a servant in the house of landlord Engelhardt and at the age of 15 he met a great Russian painter Karl Briullov who brought him freedom (he painted a portrait of the famous Russian poet V. Zhukovsky and sold the picture for 2500 rubles).This sum of money was given to landlord and the Shevchenko got freedom. In 1838, he entered the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg since he was fond of poetry and painting.

In 1840, his first collection of poems was published. The book was called “Kobzar”. On the 13th of May, 1843 he started his first trip around Ukraine. During this trip he met a lot of famous writers and painters, he made some his pictures and added them to the album “Picturesque Ukraine”.