Serhii Vasylkivsky

Serhii Vasylkivsky ( _uk. Сергій Васильківський, IPA2|sɛr'ɦij ʋɑsɪlʲ'kiʋsʲkɪj) (October 19 1854 - October 7 1917) was a Ukrainian painter and scholar on ornamentation and folk art of Ukraine.

Vasylkivsky grew up in an environment conducive to his development as an artist. He spent his childhood in the picturesque surroundings of Izium, a city in the historical region of Sloboda Ukraine, and today's Kharkiv Oblast. The future painter had a chumak grandfather whose roots reached cossack ancestral lines. Vasylkivsky's father was a writer and taught his son the aesthetics of proper calligraphy line, while his mother through her folk songs set the foundation which provided the inspiration for Vasylkivsky's art later in life. Lastly Dmytro Bezperchy, an art teacher at the Kharkiv gymnasium and a student of Karl Briullov, provided Vasylkivsky the necessary artistic support.

Life

Vasylkivsky was born in Izium of Kharkiv Governorate. [http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/pages/V/A/VasylkivskySerhii.htm Vasylkivsky, Serhii] . Encyclopedia of Ukraine. "The Encyclopedia of Ukraine", vol. 5 (1993)] When he was seven years old, his parents moved to Kharkiv, which at the time was a significant cultural center of "Sloboda Ukraine". Vasylkivsky first art lessons were given at the Kharkiv gymnasium by B. Bezperchy, a student of K. Briulov. During the years of his study, Vasylkivsky was able to use the book collection of his relative V. Alexandrov. Among these were the works by Ivan Kotlyarevsky, Taras Shevchenko, and Nikolai Gogol, which made a strong impression on the young artist. After five years of gymnasium's education and at the demand of his father, Vasylkivsky began studies at the Kharkiv Veterinary School.

This lasted until 1873. That year, Vasylkivsky left veterinary studies due to his parents inability to pay for tuition. For a while, he worked as a civil servant in Kharkiv.

But in 1876, contrary to his father's wishes, Vasylkivsky left for the St. Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts. While there, Vasylkivsky was supervised by well known landscape painters Volodymyr Orlovsky and Mykhailo Klodt. His education was supplemented with traveling exhibitions and trips back home. Upon graduation in 1885 he traveled to Europe and North Africa on a scholarship from the Academy, painting places he visited from Spain to Germany and Egypt."Spirit of Ukraine: 500 Years of Painting." Winnipeg Art Gallery. 1991, pg. 212 ISBN 0-88915-163-6.]

In Paris, Vasylkivsky became fascinated with the School of Barbizon. By the time, he returned to the Academy, Vasylkivsky brought with him an exhibition of almost 50 art works. Critics praised these paintings, calling them "miniature pearls". The paintings reflected the influence of Barbizon's panoramic depiction of space, the sky and the silvery atmosphere of "Piere Corot". Vasylkivsky retained these characteristics in his Ukrainian landscapes.

After settling in Kharkiv in 1888, he was active in Ukrainian artistic circles and headed the architectural and art society there. Vasylkivsky died at age 62 in Kharkiv.

Art works

A typical Vasylkivsky theme is an armed horse-mounted cossack in steppes or a group of cossacks on sentry duty, traveling or resting. To this group of works belong panoramic views for which the folk memory preserved historical titles such as "Cossack Mountain".

In the middle of the painting "Cossack Picket" (1888), three horses stand in the dawn's light; to the right, near the fire, sit resting cossacks who are on watch duty in steppes. The sky and the unbounded steppes, veiled in lilly-blue fog, and wet grass and humid air, change colors gradually.

Legacy

Vasylkivsky left behind almost 3,000 works of realist and impressionist art, sketches, drawings, a great number of which were lost during World War II. He was the first, after Taras Shevchenko, to draw upon subject matter from Ukraine's past and completed a number of works on historical and ethnographic themes. Vasylkivsky created three large panels for the Poltava Zemstvo (Provincial Land Administration) building: "The Chumak Road to Romodan", "Election of Pushkar", "The Duel of Cossack Holota with a Tatar".

Together with Mykola Samokysh and ethnographer and archaeologist Dmytro Yavomytsky he collaborated on the album "From Ukrainian Antiquity" (1900).

Further reading

Albums of Vasylkivsky's works were published in 1970 and 1987. Books about him have been written by O. Nikolaiev (1927), Kostiantyn Slipko-Moskaltsiv (1930), M. Bezkhutry (1954, 1967), and I. Ohiievska (1980).

References