Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko was born on March 9, 1814 (according to the old style, February 25, 1814) in the village of Morintsy in the Kyiv province, now part of the Zvenyhorod district in the Cherkasy region of Ukraine. He was born into a large family of serf peasant Hryhoriy Ivanovych Shevchenko.

In 1816, the Shevchenko family moved to the village of Kyrylivka, now called Shevchenkove, located in the same Cherkasy region. Here, Taras spent his childhood. In 1823, he lost his mother, and in 1825, his father. From the age of twelve, Taras experienced all the hardships of life as an orphan. He worked as a servant for a deacon-teacher, where he learned to read and write, and as an assistant to deacon-painters, where he mastered drawing. In 1829, at the age of 15, he became a servant for the landowner Engelhardt, first as a kitchen boy, then as a 'Cossack' servant. Noticing Shevchenko's interest in drawing, the landowner decided to make him a household artist and sent him to study first with Yan Rustem, a teacher at Vilnius University, and after moving to St. Petersburg in 1831, with master V. Shiryayev in 1832.

In 1838, thanks to his acquaintance with artists Bryullov and Venetsianov and poet Zhukovsky, Shevchenko was freed from serfdom. That same year, he entered the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts.

In a sign of respect and gratitude to Zhukovsky, Shevchenko dedicated the poem 'Kateryna' to him. In 1842, he created a painting on this theme, which is the only surviving work from his academic period, done in oil.

The period from 1840 to 1846 became a time of flourishing for Shevchenko's creativity. During these years, his collection of poems 'Kobzar' (1840, more complete edition in 1860) was published, as well as the poems 'Haidaimaky' (1841), 'Son' (1844), and 'Naimychka' (1845).

In 1847, for participating in the Cyril and Methodius Society, Shevchenko was arrested and sent as a private to the separate Orenburg Corps with a ban on writing and drawing.

In 1848-1849, he participated in an expedition to study the Aral Sea, where he was tasked with sketching landscapes. He received permission to draw thanks to the good relationship with General Obruchev and Lieutenant Butakov. However, when this was learned in St. Petersburg, the general and lieutenant were reprimanded, and Shevchenko was exiled to serve in Novopetrovsk (now Fort Shevchenko in Kazakhstan) on the Mangyshlak Peninsula, where he remained until 1857.

In 1858, Shevchenko returned to St. Petersburg. His life during this period is well known thanks to the 'Diary' he kept in Russian in 1857-1858.

In 1859, he visited Ukraine.

Before his death, Shevchenko began working on school textbooks in the Ukrainian language.

Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko passed away on March 10, 1861 (according to the old style, February 26, 1861) the day after his 47th birthday from dropsy. Historian Mykola Ivanovych Kostomarov believed that the cause of death was 'excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages.'

Shevchenko was buried at the Smolensk Orthodox Cemetery in St. Petersburg. After 58 days, his remains were reburied on Chernecha Hill in Kaniv (Cherkasy region of Ukraine) in accordance with his 'Will.'

Shevchenko's poetry, infused with love for Ukraine and compassion for the people's plight, is characterized by its closeness to folk creativity, deep lyricism, and grace of expression, as noted by I. Franko.

Shevchenko's painting marked the beginning of the realistic direction in Ukrainian art.

Since much of Shevchenko's prose is written in Russian, as well as some poems, his work is attributed to both Ukrainian and Russian literature.