Taras Shevchenko and the Search for a Ukrainian Identity Largely
regarded as the father of Ukrainian literature and linguistics,
Taras Shevchenko was a brilliant but controversial philosophical
artist and scholar of the 19th century. Lindsay Parnell explores
his life and work. Orphaned at age 11, Shevchenko was forced to
serve as a serf in the home of a Russian aristocrat before being
sent to St. Petersburg to apprentice and pursue his natural
artistic talents. In 1838, the talented illustrator enrolled at
the Academy of the Arts to study with the acclaimed Karl
Briullov. Shevchenko excelled at the visual arts as a highly
skilled painter, but his creativity and artistic expression
quickly transcended the boundaries of a canvas and brush and
found their way to pen and paper. His debut collection of poetry
in 1840, Kobzar shared its title with what became the author’s
nickname and a term synonymous with the Ukraine’s literary
renewal in the mid 19th century. It marked a new direction for
Ukrainian writing and i