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January 17, 1869

Ivan Trush, an outstanding Ukrainian impressionist, was born in Vysotske, near Brody in western Ukraine, on January 17, 1869. After studying at the Krakow Academy of Fine Arts (1891-1897), he lived in Lviv, where he was active in artistic circles and Ukrainian community life. He was a friend of Ivan Franko and the son-in-law of Mykhailo Drahomanov. Trush organized the first Society for the Advancement of Ruthenian Art and the Society of Friends of Ukrainian Scholarship, Literature and Art, and co-published the first Ukrainian art magazine, Artystychnyi Visnyk.

He also lectured on art and literature and contributed article to the leading journals of the day (Dilo, Moloda Ukrayina, Literaturno-Naukovyi Vistnyk). He traveled widely, visiting Kyyiv several times (where he taught at Mykola Murashko's drawing school in 1901), Italy, Egypt and Palestine.

The first solo exhibition of his works took place in Lviv in 1899. His works are noted for their original use of color and stillness and simplicity of composition. Many of them are considered masterpieces, including "Sunset in the Forest" (1904), "Solitary Pine"(1919), "Grain Stacks near the Woods" (1919), "Haystacks" (1925). His gallery of 350 portraits includes Ivan Franko, the writers Vasyl Stefanyk, Lesia Ukrainka, Ivan Nechui Levytsky, historians Volodymyr Antonovych and Mykhailo Hrushevsky, and the composer Mykola Lysenko.

After his death in March 1941, a large retrospective exhibition was held in Lviv. A selection of his essays on art and literature appeared posthumously in 1959.

Source: "Trush, Ivan, "Encyclopedia of Ukraine, Vol. 5 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press).

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, January 17, 1993, No. 3, Vol. LXI

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