Portrait of an unknown with a guitar

Taras Shevchenko. Portrait of an unknown with the guitar. Paper, sepia (17,9 × 14 cm). Raim. [19.VI – 25.VII 1848, I – III 1849]. Taras Shevchenko National Museum, inv. g – 265.

Left (lower than middle) inscription: Raim.

Dated by Shevchenko's residence time in Raim and based on a letter from Shevchenko to Maksheev 26.III 1849, which he wrote: "I have two months left my residence Kos-Aral, so I can not tell you anything new about its life of A. I., but about Raim and say nothing – an immutable".

Accessories of this portrait have common features with "Shevchenko draws a friend". Both figures are made in sepia same manner; lighting in both figures given above left through a window in the ceiling of dzhulamijka (tent); figures walls and carpet pattern the same as the picture number 12, which shows also the guitar over the bed, which at this figure shows only the pillow. For lighting and elements of shows that portrayed a person sitting on the same bed, which is fully in the picture number 12.

In literature known as "Portrait of his comrades in soldier service" ["In remembrance of the 50th anniversary of the death of Taras Shevchenko", Moscow, 1911, insert between pages 96 – 97], "Portrait Shevchenko comrades in soldier service, playing on guitar" ["Product of Shevchenko exhibition in Moscow on occasion 50th anniversary of his death", Moscow, 1911, p. 5, № 4], "Guitarist in soldier's ammunition" [A. Novitsky Taras Shevchenko as a painter, Lviv – Moscow, 1914, p. 45, № 77].

Storage areas: property I. O. Nicholsky, G. I. Alekseeva, Institute of Taras Shevchenko, Kharkiv – Kyiv, Gallery of pictures Shevchenko, Kharkiv.

In In 1911 exhibited at Shevchenko exhibition in Moscow (catalog, p. 5, № 4).

K. V. Chumak

After publication: Taras Shevchenko Complete Works in 10 volumes. – Kyiv: ed. Academy of sciences of UkrSSR, 1962, vol. 8, № 13 (image), p. 11 (notes).