LEO TOLSTOY: A BRONZE BUST, AFTER THE MODEL BY PAOLO TROUBETZKOY (1866-1938)

Acquired from the Bowater Gallery, London in 1973.

Prince Paolo Troubetzkoy’s Impressionist sculptures of Tolstoy are widely acknowledged as some of his most significant works. Troubetzkoy first met Tolstoy in 1898, when he moved from Italy to Russia. The famous author captivated Tolstoy with his ‘marvellously interesting head to sculpt’ and Tolstoy executed three sculptures of him within the year. In 1900, Tolstoy won the Grande Prix de Sculpture for Russia at the Paris Exhibition Universelle and his model of Tolstoy on Horseback was acquired by the Musée du Luxembourg. 

The artistic relationship between Troubetzkoy and Tolstoy was famously captured in a photograph taken by Count Tolstoy’s wife in his Moscow Studio. Troubetzkoy’s working style itself, which was new to Russia and an engrossing spectacle, enthralled and inspired Troubetzkoy’s sitters. Count Tolstoy travelled daily to pose for his portrait in Troubetzkoy’s studio on Myasnitskaya Street and was captivated by Troubetzkoy’s apparent ease with his intricate sculpting implements. The experience notably led the famous author to try his own hand at sculpture.

The pedigree of the present bust of Tolstoy is further enhanced by its purchase from the Bowater Gallery in London in 1973. The Gallery was run by the daughter of the famous Mir Iskusstva artist, Alexander Yakovlev and the lauded Russian scholar John Spencer Innes Stuart.