<p><br />

A Mykhaylo Sazhyn’s watercolour<br />

painted with the participation of Taras Shevchenko (it is known that<br />

they made some drawings and pictures together; a T. Shevchenko’s<br />

sketch, made from the same angle, has been preserved). In this<br />

drawing one can see a view of Kyiv from the south, from the side of<br />

the Holosiivski hills. A shepherd and his goats can be seen in the<br />

foreground. As is typical of Sazhyn’s landscape painting, the<br />

silhouette dominants here are churches and cathedrals. On the horizon<br />

one can see (from the left to the right) the St. Sophia cathedral<br />

with the belfry, the church of the Three Saints, the St. Michael<br />

monastery, the cathedral of St. Nicholas “Slupsky” (“the Small<br />

Nicholas”) and the St. Nicholas Military cathedral (“the Great<br />

Nicholas”), as well as the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra. The last structure<br />

on the left on the horizon is the St. Volodymyr University.</p><p>Mykhaylo Sazhyn<br />

depicted streets coming down from the St. Sophia cathedral to the<br />

Kozyne swamp (Khreshchatyk), which he knew well as he lived on one of<br />

them together with Taras Shevchenko. The Lybid river valley and two<br />

smaller churches can be seen closer to the spectator, in the<br />

midground. The foreground and background are conventionally crossed<br />

by the line of the Vasylkivska road (now 40-richchia Zhovtnia<br />

avenue). The contrast is intensified due to the lighting of the<br />

background and the darkening of the foreground.</p><p>Olga Martyniuk</p>