In 1845 Shevchenko was graduated from the Imperial Academy of Arts at
Petersburg. Shortly after he travelled to the Ukraine, purposing to
devote his life to the service of his own people.
His progress was a triumphal march, a succession of banquets and
popular welcomes and entertainments at the homes of the wealthy.
At Kiev people still remember that the earliest Russian civilization
had its beginnings in the Ukraine. There Christianity first took root,
and there were the first Russian Princes.
Before Shevchenko’s arrival there was organized at Kiev the Society of
Cyril and Methodius, called after the great apostles of Russia, and the
leading spirits of the Society were professors in the University of
Kiev.
Into this brilliant company Shevchenko was welcomed. Its leaders became
his devoted friends. A chair of painting in the University was to be
established for him.
Most remarkable were the relations between Shevchenko and Professor
Kulisch. Kulisch was to be married to a great lady, a daughter of one
of the nobles of the country. The poet was invited to the wedding and
the bride, in her enthusiasm, actually kissed his hand. This was an
astonishing act of condescension towards one who had been a serf, but
this lady, herself afterwards a famous authoress, cherished the memory
to her dying day.
Shevchenko’s saddest experience in the Ukraine was when he visited his
native village and found his brothers and sisters in serfdom. His dream
was to earn enough money to purchase their freedom, and afterwards to
devote his life to the liberation of the peasantry. The poem—“The
Bondwoman’s Dream”—commemorates the poet’s meeting with his favorite
sister, Katherine, working as a slave.
His friends thought he should go to Italy to perfect himself in
painting. Madame Kulisch purposed to sell her family jewels to raise
sufficient money to send Shevchenko to that country. Her husband who
was in the plot told Shevchenko that some wealthy person had
contributed the money but he must not ask for the donor’s name.
But on returning to Kiev from the Kulisch home a policeman put his hand
on the shoulder of the poet painter.
The bright dream was ended.