In this period, Shevchenko’s poetry displayed a deep national sense which was to remain throughout his life. Shevchenko also wrote plays in 1842, a fragment of the tragedy Mykyta Haidai appeared, and in 1843 he completed the drama Nazar Stodolya. Just as significant is his oil painting Kateryna, based on his poem of the same name. In September of that same year, Shevchenko received his third Silver Medal – for his watercolour painting, The Gypsy Fortune Teller. In 1841, the epic poem Haidamaky appeared as a separate volume. In 1840, the world first saw Kobzar, his first collection of poetry. Shevchenko began to write poetry even before being freed from serfdom. Kvitka-Osnovyanenko, and the romantic poets, as well as many Russian, East European and world writers. In the library of Yevhen Hrebinka, he became familiar with anthologies of Ukrainian folklore and the works of I. At the annual examinations at the Imperial Academy of Arts, he was awarded the Silver Medal for a landscape painting and in 1840, he was again given the Silver Medal, this time for his first oil painting, A Beggar Boy Giving Bread to a Dog. In January 1839, Shevchenko was accepted as a resident student at the Association for the Encouragement of Artists. That same year, approval of Shevchenko’s drawings by the Association for the Encouragement of Artists, guaranteed his acceptance into the Imperial Academy of Arts as an external student, practicing in the workshop of Karl Bryullov. The release from serfdom was signed on April 22, 1838. The 2500 rubles required were raised through a lottery in which the prize was a portrait of the poet Vasiliy Zhukovsky, painted by Karl Bryullov. Recognizing his talent as an artist, prominent members of the intelligentsia, who had befriended Shevchenko, arranged to buy him out of serfdom. Petersburg and in 1832, Engelhardt 'contracted' him to the master painter Vasiliy Shiryayev, with whom the lad experienced a hard school of professional training. At the beginning of 1831, he left for St.

Shevchenko remained with his landlord's servants in Vilnius and was witness to the revolutionary events. When the Polish rebellion for national liberation from Russia began in November 1830, Engelhardt left for the Russian capital, St. In the spring of 1829, Taras travelled with Pavlo Engelhardt to Vilnius, Lithuania. Taras Shevchenko, Self-Portrait with Candle, 1860, etching, aquatint

Kobzar shevchenko