Wilhelm Kotarbinskyi in documentary photography artifacts of the Department of Fine Arts of V. I. Vernadskyi National Library of Ukraine (to 170-birthday anniversary)

The aim of the research is to attribute the artifacts of documentary photography stored at the Department of Fine Arts of V. I. Vernadskyi National Library of Ukraine to Wilhelm O. Kotarbinskyi, a prominent artist of Polish origin, who had been living and working in Ukraine in 19th - early 20th cc. The paper is also aimed at correction of inaccurate biographical data in previous studies of the artist’s creative heritage. The methodology of the research. There were applied various methods of the research including general scientific methods and specifically historical ones such as source analysis and method of historical comparison. Such methodological approach provided solid foundation for analysis and attribution of photographs, and specification of geographic location of the artist’s studio presented therein. The scietific novelty of the research. The last two decades showed that there is a considerable increase of public interest in creative heritage of W. Kotarbinskyi due to his great influence on «Europeanisation» of Ukrainian Art and outstanding contribution to cultural and artistic life of Kyiv in 19th c. for the first time two photo artifacts stored at the Department of Fine Arts of V. I. Vernadskyi National Library of Ukraine are attributed on the basis of the analysis of foreign and national periodicals, internet resources, memoirs: the artist is identified and the setting of the photos is located as the artist’s studio in his mansion in Kalsk. Conclusions. The documentary photography artifacts stored at the Department of Fine Arts of VNLU highlight the Kotarbinskyi’s «Belarusian period» that is yet to be explored and therefore constitute essential source for the artist’s biography further research.