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Taras Shevchenko

Encyclopedia of the life and works

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Narcissus and the nymph Echo. Sketches

Taras Shevchenko. Narcissus and the…

Taras Shevchenko. Narcissus and the nymph Echo. Recessed. A boy with a dog.
Sketches. [1840 – 1841. St. Petersburg].
Paper, pencil. 17,8 × 26,5 cm
Taras Shevchenko National Museum, № g – 705.

On the back -"Corner of Smolensk cemetery.

Top right pencil inscription: 375 inv. Number 2 – 1925 g, below an inscription in pencil: 539.

On sheet placed four subject sketches and easy outline of naked women. Left – the sketch to the "Narcissus and the nymph Echo", right – a sketch that is close to the storyline of the pictures "Orphan boy shares the alms of the dog under the fence" (not found, № 228). In the center – most processed composition that is similar to lines from Shevchenko's ballad "Recessed":

"Ashore Anna undressed,

Undressed, spread

On the white shirt […]

Below left – a sketch that is likely to disclose the contents of the next episode of ballads:

"like mad…,

Picking on a spit.

Near the bottom – a portrait sketch of the unknown.

The figures on this side of the sheet registered in 1861 by G.M. Chestahivsky in description of the Shevchenko's drawings, that were in his academic workshops, at number 99.

The names and content of pictures "Recessed" and "Boy with a dog" were first identified by G.P. Palamarchuk [Palamarchuk G. Sketches of unknown pieces T.H. Shevchenko // Taras Shevchenko – artist: Research, intelligence publication. – K., 1963. – p. 145 – 147].

Dated approximately 1840 – 1841's with consideration of time Shevchenko was awarded silver medal for the painting "The orphan–boy shares the alms of the dog under the fence" (September 27, 1840) and the time of writing ballads "Recessed" (December 8, 1841).

Page with pictures and sketches for the first time was reproduced and widely commented in 1961 [T. Shevchenko Complete Works: in 10 volumes. – K., 1961. – Vol. 7, bk. 2. – p. 26. – № 253]

Probably the sketch "A boy with a dog", that on this sheet is mentioned with the name "Sketch scene with bandura player" [T. Shevchenko Complete Works. – [Kharkiv, 1932. – T. 8]. – p. 29. – № 222].

Storage areas: from April 1861 – property of M.M.Lazarevsky, later purchased by St. Petersburg's Ukrainian community, not earlier than July 1861 – A.O. Kozachkovsky, not later than 1875 came to V.P. Kakhovski; from 1891 Kakhovski family, not later than 1893 transferred to S.D. Brazol; since 1898 – a collection of V. Tarnowskі; from 1899 – V. Tarnowski's Chernihiv museum of ukrainian antiquities, 1925 – Chernihiv Historical Museum, from 1932 – Gallery of pictures by T.H. Shevchenko (Kharkiv), from 1948 – State Museum of T.H. Shevchenko (Kyiv).

Exhibition: 1974. Kyiv. Works from the collection of Taras Shevchenko [Artworks in own collection of Taras Shevchenko: Exhibition Catalogue. – K., 1974. – p. 8].

O.G. Vartanova

After publication: Taras Shevchenko Complete Works in 10 volumes. – K.: ed. of Acad. Sci. of UkrSSR, 1961, t. 7, bk. 2, № 253 (image); T.H. Shevchenko Complete Works in 12 volumes. – K.: Naukova Dumka, 2003, v. 7, p. 433 – 434 (notes).