1888, he became active in Ukrainian artistic circles and headed the architectural and art society there. Vasylkivsky died at age 62 in Kharkiv. Shortly before his death, he gave all his drawings to the Kharkiv Ukrainian Art Museum. In the same year, the newspaper "Nova Rada" called the artist "a pleasant person", "an interesting storyteller" and "a conscious Ukrainian". Art works A typical Vasylkivsky theme is an armed horse-mounted Zaporozhian Cossack in the Ukrainian steppes or a group of cossacks on sentry duty, traveling or resting. To this group of works belong panoramic views with historical titles such as "Cossack Mountain". In the middle of the painting "Cossack Picket" (1888), three horses stand in the dawn light; to the right, near the fire, sit resting cossacks who are on watch duty in the steppes. The sky and the unbounded steppes, veiled in lily-blue fog, and wet grass and humid air, change colors gradually. Legacy The end of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century saw an upsurge of interest in Ukrainian culture and the flourishing of Ukrainian painting. Painters such as Serhiy Vasylkivsky and Oleksandr Murashko introduced new subjects, new approaches, new visions and new techniques to keep abreast with the latest developments in European painting of those times. Vasylkivsky left behind almost 3,000 works of realist and impressionist art, sketches, drawings, a great number of which were lost during World War II. He was the first, after Taras Shevchenko, to draw upon subject matter from Ukraine's past and completed a number of works on historical and ethnographic themes. Vasylkivsky created three large panels for the Poltava Zemstvo (Provincial Land Administration) building which was designed by the Ukrainian architect Vasyl Krychevsky: The Chumak Road to Romodan, Election of Pushkar, The Duel of Cossack Holota with a Tatar. As well, he helped design the interior ornamentation in a 'Modern Ukrainian' folk style. Together with Mykola Samokysh and ethnographer and archaeologist, Dmytro Yavornytsky, Vasylkivsky worked on the album "From Ukrainian Antiquity" (1900). Further reading Albums of Vasylkivsky's works were published in 1970 and 1987. Books about him have been written by O. Nikolaiev (1927), Kostiantyn Slipko-Moskaltsiv (1930), M. Bezkhutry (1954, 1967), and I. Ohiievska (1980). References External links A set of postcards by Serhii Vasylkivsky. Kyiv, Mistectvo, 1984. Serhiy Vasylkivsky: Biographical sketch. 1854 births 1917 deaths People from Izium People from Izyumsky Uyezd Ukrainian Impressionist painters Ukrainian ethnographers Ukrainian people in the