Portrait photographique de Tolstoï

Albumen print, mounted on cardboard with a printed brown ink border  published by the Wesenberg studio in St Petersburg. Tolstoy's name has been stamped in Cyrillic on the verso. Slightly sun-faded, as usual. One spot and a slight white mark to the lower portion.
A handsome copy of this photograph depicting Count Tolstoy in peasant clothing.
 

This fine sepia-toned portrait depicts the ageing writer, with his long beard and receding hairline, clad in the simple peasant garments he often chose to wear as a gesture of solidarity with the common people, at his estate of Yasnaya Polyana. In the final years of his life, he distanced himself from his literary fame and embraced a deliberately austere way of life, undertaking manual labour and making certain everyday objects himself. He developed a Christian doctrine founded on non-violence and equality, and worked towards the emancipation of the Russian peasantry.