Portrait of A.E. Kotzebue

Taras Shevchenko. Portrait of A.E. Kotzebue.
1843, [no later than May. St. Petersburg]. Watercolour on paper. 27,9× 22,5 cm. National Museum of Taras Shevchenko, № g-897.

At the bottom left in pencil author's date and signature: 1843. Shevchenko.

Portrait was attributed by M.I. Matsapura after iconography A. Kotzebue – a watercolor portrait of Y.R. Reitern (stored in the State Russian Museum (St. Petersburg), № 7574) and the portrait published in the journal "Russian art paper" for 1858 (№ 10) [Matsapura M. On the history of the two portraits // Ukraine. – 1953. – № 2. – P. 29; The same. On Shevchenko's portrait of an unknown // Art. – 1957. – № 2. – P. 44 – 45]

Kotzebue Alexander Evstahievich (1815 – 1889) – Russian painter of battle. Along with Shevchenko studied at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. At the end of 1841 – 1842 Shevchenko with A.E. Kotzebue and R.K. Zhukovsky worked on illustrations for book N.A.Polevoj "History of Suvorov".

Completed portrait up in May 1843 – the time of departure of Shevchenko in Ukraine.

The work was discovered by french slavist Andrew Mason in Paris in a family of Russian immigrants. According to documents of the State Literary Museum (Moscow), watercolor was acquired in 1933 by Soviet embassy in Paris for 2000 francs. The history of search and promote the portrait told Elijah Zilberstein [Zilberstein I. Meeting with Taras Shevchenko // Ogonyok (Twinkle). – 1984. – № 11. – P. 24].

For the first time in literature this composition, without identification of depicted person, mentioned V.D. Bonch-Bruevich [Bonch-Bruevich V.D. New admissions in Moscow literary museum // Literary legacy. – 1934. – Prince. 15. – P. 310].

Reproduced in 1935 with a false name "Artist of battle A.I. Zauerveid" [Eisenstok I. Fate of Shevchenko's Literary legacy // Literary legacy. – M., 1935. – № 19/21. – P. 443].

Storage areas: up to 1933 – private collection (Paris); from 1933 – State Literary Museum (Moscow); from 1940 – Central Museum T. Shevchenko (Kyiv); from 1948 – National Museum of T.H. Shevchenko (Kyiv).

Exhibitions:

1939. Kyiv. Shevchenko Jubilee Exhibition [Republican Shevchenko Jubilee Exhibition in Kiev: Index-guide. – K., 1941. – № 117];

1984. Kyiv. Shevchenko, the artist. By the 170-th birthday [Shevchenko, the artist: Exhibition Catalogue. – K., 1986. – P. 9];

1985. Kyiv. Museum of Kyiv. Shevchenko – portrait artist (no catalog).

N.A. Orobchenko

After publication: Taras Shevchenko Complete works in 10 volumes. – Kyiv: ed. Academy of sciences of UkrSSR, 1961, Vol. 7, part 1, № 73 (image); T.H. Shevchenko Complete works in 12 volumes. – Kyiv: Naukova Dumka, 2003, v. 7, p. 390 – 391 (note).