A portrait of Klymentii Sheptytskyi by artist Mykhailo Shalabavka

Abstract

The article covers the life and creative development of one of the little known Ukrainian photographers and painters of the first half of the twentieth century, who was Mykhaylo Shalabavka. In order to disclose his biographical data in more detail, the information provided by modern researchers 399 has been supplemented with archival materials. Due to their analysis, first of all, M. Shalabavka’s letters to Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytskyi presented many new facts that characterize the artist’s participation in public life in the formation of the Ukrainian school of photography first in Lviv, his beliefs about further ways of its development. Emphasizing his active participation in public life, the article stated that he executed hundreds of photographs of national liberation competitions of the Ukrainian people of the early twentieth century, life and way of life of Boykivschyna, Hutsulschyna and Podillya, architecture of Lviv. Particular attention is paid to the photo portraits that brought the author glory. One of his most famous works, Portrait of Oleksa Novakivskyi, and little-known photographs of prominent representatives of the Greek Catholic Church of the twentieth century, discovered in the collections of the Vasyl Stefanyk National Scientific Library of Ukraine in Lviv named after, are analyzed in detail. It is substantiated that by performing portraits, M. Shalabavka worked according to the requirements of the time, which included the use of the traditions of the portrait genre of previous centuries. This has significantly influenced the artist’s works, securing them a proper place in the history of photography. Due to many years of work by photographer M. Shalabavka in the late 1930’s, he turned to painting, performed an oil painting «Portrait of Klymentii Sheptytskyi». He is one of the later artists and sums up his multidimensional experience.