ainter in Warsaw. In 1831
he was sent to his master in St. Petersburg on foot by the regular
police "stages" (_etape_), arriving almost shoeless, and acted as lackey
in the establishment. At last his master granted his urgent request, and
apprenticed him for four years to an instructor in painting. Here
Shevtchenko made acquaintance with the artist I. M. Soshenko, and
through him with an author of some little note, who took pity on the
young fellow's sorry plight, and began to invite him to his house, give
him books to read, furnish him with various useful suggestions, and with
money. Thus did Shevtchenko come to know the Russian and western
classical authors, history, and so forth. Through Soshenko's agency, the
aid of the secretary of the Academy of Arts was invoked to rescue the
young man from his artist master's intolerable oppression, and his
literary friend introduced Shevtchenko to Zhukovsky, who took an ardent
interest in the fate of the talented young fellow. They speedily began
operations to free Shevtchenko from serfdom; and the manner in which it
was finally affected is curious. A certain general ordered a portrait of
himself from Shevtchenko for which he was to pay fifty rubles. The
general was not pleased with the portrait, and refused to accept it. The
offended artist painted the general's beard over with a froth of
shaving-soap, and sold the picture for a song to the barber who was in
the habit of shaving the general, and he used it as a sign. The general
flew into a rage, immediately purchased the portrait, and with a view to
revenging himself on the artist, he offered the latter's master a huge
sum for him. Shevtchenko was so panic-stricken at the prospect of what
awaited him, that he fled for aid to the artist Briuloff, entreating the
latter to save him. Briuloff told Zhukovsky, and Zhukovsky repeated the
story to the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, wife of Nicholas I.
Shevtchenko's master was ordered to stop the sale. The Empress then
commanded Briuloff to complete a portrait of her which he had begun, and
she put it up as the prize in a lottery among the members of the
imperial family for the sum of ten thousand rubles--the price offered
for Shevtchenko by the enraged general. Shevtchenko thus received his
freedom in May, 1838, and immediately began to attend the classes in the
Academy of Arts, and speedily became one of Briuloff's favorite pupils
and comrades.

In 1840 he published his "Kobzar"[29] w