Fort Kos-Aral in winter (2)
Taras Shevchenko. Fort Kos-Aral in winter. Paper, sepia, white (15,9 × 30,7 cm). [Kos-Aral]. [No sooner than 20.XI 1848 – 2.IV 1849]. Taras Shevchenko National Museum, inv. number g – 759.
The figure pasted on the sheet. On this sheet made inscription in ink (possibly by hand O. M. Butakova): Fort Kos-Aral, where stay in winter A. I. Butakov and Shevchenko in 1848 (work Shevchenko).
On the back of the album's sheet on the left – pencil inscription and signature by hand S. Glazenap: From album A.I. Butakov. S. Glazenap.
From left, foreground figure – a building in which wintered A. I. Butakov on Kos-Aral.
On this winter in fort Butakov wrote in a letter to relatives of October 3, 1848:
"Winter, I live here on the island of Kos-Aral (at the mouth of the Syr Darya), in a very small palace, erected among small fort with 4 guns, enough to hold a whole respekt Khiva army" [Berg L. S. Essays on the history of Russian geographical discoveries, Moscow – Leningrad, 1949, p. 206].
For this story, see number 35. Internal view of the same house, see number 41.
After this figure was made the etching by O. M. Butakova [see Rovinsky D.A. Detailed dictionary of Russian engravers. – St. Petersburg, 1895, p. 90]. Etching is stored in the Taras Shevchenko National Museum, inv. g – 1108.
Storage areas: property of Butakov, S. Glazenap, S. P. Jaremych, Kyiv City Museum, Ukrainian History Museum. Taras Shevchenko Kyiv.
On the back – outline of the same fort (see number 176).
L. I. Vnuchkova
After publication: Taras Shevchenko Complete Works in 10 volumes. – Kyiv: ed. Academy of sciences of UkrSSR, 1962, vol. 8, № 36 (image), p. 22 (notes).