Ukrainian Maiden

Provenance: 

​​​Paper: Okawara [Quarto 18: x 25” Weight: 40 g/m2
Paper Size: 9” x 12.5”
Image Size: 4” x 5”
Collage Stamp: Shahy Issue July 18, 1918 - forgery
Edition Size: 50
Inks Used: Van Son Rubber based inks [Transparent : Reflex Blue : Black 30:3”0.5 + 10% Setswell
Date Cut:

The first stamps of the newly independent nation of Ukraine were issued on July 18, 1918. This “Shahy Issue” was printed without perforations and shipped to post offices in sheets of 100. Heorhiy [Georgi] Narbut designed the 30 shahiv blue Ukrainian Maiden. The Narbut family traced back to Lithuanian nobility; Georgi's brother Vladimir was a noted poet. Georgi trained in St. Petersburg and Munich, settling in Kiev in 1917, when he was named professor and rector at the Ukrainian Academy of Arts. His graphic designs included book and magazine illustrations, as well as various banknotes, stamps, and charters for the People's Republic of Ukraine when it rose to independence in 1918 after the Bolshevik Revolution. The republic was absorbed into the Soviet system soon after independence, and Georgi died of typhus in 1920. From 1993 until 2008, the Ukrainian Philatelic and Numismatic Society sponsored the prestigious Heorhiy Narbut Prize for "Best Ukrainian Stamp Design."
His design featured a maiden wearing a garland of flowers and wheat grain heads. The trident symbol emblematic of the Ukrainian republic is featured along the top right and left of the portrait. The symbol was adopted by the rulers of medieval Kyivan Rus' of the 10th-11th centuries, and has been the national symbol when the nation was formed in 1918 and again in 1992.
The stamp collaged to the print is a forgery, distinguished from genuine stamps by the thin, shiny, light brown, semi-transparent paper, quite different from the official issue on white paper. This print is dedicated to my partner in life, Terry Gordon Smith, muse of the Gods of Gardening.

Available:

$25.00 USD
$500 MXN
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