The Diary of Kobzar

The kerchief is an acquaintance with Taras the artist. Through his huge creative heritage we can look at Ukraine of that time, in a contemporary way, the sketches in his diary resemble a blog of a traveler. It would not be an exaggeration to speak about Shevchenko as a genius and virtuosic artist. 835 works have survived to our time, many have been lost, and there are some awaiting confirmation of authorship. The drawings are like parallels to his poems, serving as illustrations to the poet’s life.

He is considered to be one of the founders of Ukrainian self-portrait. But nude self-portraits in the world art can be counted in fingers of one hand. You can see one of them on our kerchief. A tired man wearing a lambskin hat and peasant’s overcoat is not an entirely accurate image of the poet.

In St Petersburg he earned good money as a portraitist (from 10 rubles per portrait) and bought himself fashionable clothes. You look at these sincere sketches and here he is! Real, live, creative and bright young man Taras. We see the life he lived to become the great Kobzar, the Prophet and the Father of the Ukrainian people! Vivacious artist-adventurer! Moreover, with his own half-naked self-portrait.

According to Oleksandr Hrekhov, “Shevchenko continues to be remembered and quoted at the times of confusion and uncertainty (i.e. regularly) though within the period of 200 years he has turned from a vivacious artist-adventurer into an ideological monument of struggle against tribulation”.

The name of the kerchief is not randomly chosen. It emphasizes that Taras LIVED EVERY DAY. Not only on those days when he was writing “Kateryna” or “Testament”. He lived the life of an adventurer, artist and traveler and experienced a lot of other interesting vicissitudes.