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About plots on stamps ⁄ Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko and his Katerina
Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko (Ukrainian: Тарáс Григóрович Шевчéнко) (March 9 [O.S. February 25] 1814 – March 10 [O.S. February 26] 1861) was a Ukrainian poet, artist and humanist. His literary heritage is regarded to be the foundation of modern Ukrainian literature and, to a large extent, the modern Ukrainian language. Shevchenko also wrote in Russian and left many masterpieces as a painter and an illustrator.
“Kateryna”. Oil on canvas, size 93x72,3 cm. Summer 1842.
The picture is painted after Taras Shevchenko poem with the same name.
Taras Shevchenko describes the history of picture creation in his letter to S. Tarnovsky, dated February 25th, 1843: “… I have painted two pictures this summer and hidden them anticipating your visit… but Skobelev have found them and grabbed one, while second is still with me, so I think of sending it to you, the price you will define yourself. I have painted Kateryna at the moment when she parted with her soldier friend and was on her way back to the village, at the fence, next to old man making wooden spoons and looking at her sadly, and she is nearly to cry, putting up her skirt, you know there is not so much to see… and the soldier is catching his comrades, all the dust is in the air, and limey dog is after him, barking. On the one hand there is a tomb (probably the tomb hill is meant), on the tomb there is a windmill, and over it only the steppe… Such is my picture”.
A pencil sketch is added to the letter.
Stamps and envelopes with this picture:
USSR (stamp), 1957Ukraine, 1999
Ukraine (stamp), 20082008.11.07
