Ivan Sydorovych Yizhakevych was a painter, writer, and People's Artist of the Ukrainian SSR (1951).

Life, Education and Work

Yizhakevych was born in the village of Vyshnopoli, Cherkasy Oblast

Cherkasy Oblast

Cherkasy Oblast is an oblast of central Ukraine located along the Dnieper River. The administrative center of the oblast is the city of Cherkasy).-Geography:...

. He was educated in the M. Murashko School of Art in Kiev

Kiev

Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....

 (Kyiv), Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

 from 1882 to 1884. Following this Yizhakevych studied at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts from 1884 to 1888.

Yizhakevych' paintings reflect themes from Ukrainian history

History of Ukraine

The territory of Ukraine was a key center of East Slavic culture in the Middle Ages, before being divided between a variety of powers. However, the history of Ukraine dates back many thousands of years. The territory has been settled continuously since at least 5000 BC, and is also a candidate site...

, such as Kyi, Schek and Khoryv, Cossack

Cossack

Cossacks are a group of predominantly East Slavic people who originally were members of democratic, semi-military communities in what is today Ukraine and Southern Russia inhabiting sparsely populated areas and islands in the lower Dnieper and Don basins and who played an important role in the...

 battles, and Haidamaky. Yizhakevych also illustrated works by Ukrainian writers

Ukrainian literature

Ukrainian literature is literature written in the Ukrainian language. Ukrainian literature had a difficult development because, due to constant foreign domination over Ukrainian territories, there was often a significant difference between the spoken and written language...

, among them: Taras Shevchenko

Taras Shevchenko

Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko -Life:Born into a serf family of Hryhoriy Ivanovych Shevchenko and Kateryna Yakymivna Shevchenko in the village of Moryntsi, of Kiev Governorate of the Russian Empire Shevchenko was orphaned at the age of eleven...

, Lesia Ukrainka, Ivan Kotlyarevsky

Ivan Kotlyarevsky

Ivan Petrovych Kotlyarevsky , was a Ukrainian writer, poet and playwright, regarded as the pioneer of modern Ukrainian literature. Kotliarevsky was a veteran of the Russo-Turkish War.- Biography :...

, Ivan Franko

Ivan Franko

Ivan Yakovych Franko was a Ukrainian poet, writer, social and literary critic, journalist, interpreter, economist, political activist, doctor of philosophy, the author of the first detective novels and modern poetry in the Ukrainian language....

, and produced paintings of common people and their lives.

Yizhakevych made numerous artistic contributions to Kiev churches.