View of Kara-Tau from valley Apazyr

Taras Shevchenko. View of the Kara-Tau from the valley Apazyr. Watercolour (15.6 × 28.4 cm). [1 – 20.VI 1851]. Taras Shevchenko National Museum, inv. g – 498.

At bottom right – pencil mark by hand Shevchenko: 3 and label the other hand: Apazyr.

On the back bottom left – ink inscription by hand Shevchenko: 6. From valley Apazyr view on Kara-Tau.

The inscription on the front of the picture made during Kara-Tau expedition, number "3" defines the number of drawings made during the expedition.

Author's inscription on the back made in 1857 before sending watercolors among the 17 pictures to Br. Zaleski for "Vilna album" (see note to number 58).

Apazyr valley at the foot of the mountain Karatauchyk, 80 km from Novopetrovsk fort. This was the first place where the expedition discovered deposits of brown coal and therefore stayed here 1 to June 20.

Other image of valley Apazyr see as the etching by Br. Zaleski [album «La vie des steppes Kirghizes», Paris, 1865, between p. 52 – 53]. In the explanatory text to etching describes the valley Apazyr:

"Under this name known several valleys that stretch between the hills and gorges Mangyshlak. They do not have much peculiar, only their inherent nature, which is why they can make to the overall picture of this land, because they occur very often. Hills and cliffs change and monotonous line number to the horizon".

Other images of Apazyr valley, made in Kara-Tau expedition, see number 73.

Storage areas: V. Tarnowski's Chernihiv museum of ukrainian antiquities – № 261, Chernihiv Historical Museum, Gallery of pictures by T.H. Shevchenko (Kharkiv).

I. M. Verykivska, N. P. Prokopenko

After publication: Taras Shevchenko Complete Works in 10 volumes. – Kyiv: ed. Academy of sciences of UkrSSR, 1964, Vol. 9, № 3 (image), p. 6 – 7 (notes).