Portrait of a police officer

Taras Shevchenko. Portrait of a police officer. Pencil on paper (25 × 22 cm). [Nizhny Novgorod]. [No sooner than 20.IX 1857]. Taras Shevchenko National Museum, inv. g – 635.

On paper watermark: Whatman Turkey Mili 1857.

In Nizhny Novgorod, except portraits of P. A. Ovsyannikov, C. A. Schreiders, A. K. Kadnytsky, M. A. Frelich, Shevchenko performed also still not found portraits of V. Kyshkin, I. P. Gras, M. O. Brylkin, Oleinikov and O. E. Babkin.

Perhaps this portrait depicted Nizhny Novgorod chief police officer O. E. Babkin because from unknown portraits of Nizhny Novgorod only O. E. Babkin could be in the military uniform of the county police chief.

In the literature was known as the "Portrait of an official" [Catalogue of V. Tarnowski's Chernihiv museum of ukrainian antiquities, Chernigov, 1900, II, p. 191, № 408], "Unknown sergeant" [A. Novitsky, Taras Shevchenko as a painter, Lviv – Moscow, 1914, Tab. 13], "Portrait of an unknown" [A. Beskin, Shevchenko as an artist, "Art", Moscow, 1939, № 2, p. 12] and false dated 1845 – 1847 years.

Registered as № 65 in a Chestahivsky's list with title: "Portrait of policeman with cross and medals".

Storage areas: V. Tarnowski's Chernihiv museum of ukrainian antiquities – № 408 Chernihiv Regional History Museum, Gallery of pictures Shevchenko, Kharkiv.

K. V. Chumak

After publication: Taras Shevchenko Complete Works in 10 volumes. – Kyiv: ed. Academy of sciences of UkrSSR, 1963, v. 10, № 20 (image), p. 15 (note).