TOLSTOY, Count Leo Nikolayavich (1828-1910). Photograph inscribed and signed ("Leo Tolstoy") to Vasili Ivach Kishok, in Cyrillac, by Sherrer, Nabgolz & Co. (imprint on face, backstamp on verso), n.d. [inscription dated 27 August 1894].
TOLSTOY, Count Leo Nikolayavich (1828-1910). Photograph inscribed and signed ("Leo Tolstoy") to Vasili Ivach Kishok, in Cyrillac, by Sherrer, Nabgolz & Co. (imprint on face, backstamp on verso), n.d. [inscription dated 27 August 1894].

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TOLSTOY, Count Leo Nikolayavich (1828-1910). Photograph inscribed and signed ("Leo Tolstoy") to Vasili Ivach Kishok, in Cyrillac, by Sherrer, Nabgolz & Co. (imprint on face, backstamp on verso), n.d. [inscription dated 27 August 1894].

7 x 4¼ in, including mount, verso with elaborate gilt-printed backstamp. In fine condition. Tolstoy's emphatic ink inscription and signature in lower portion of image.

LEO TOLSTOY AS A SERF. A fine, sepia-toned image of the elderly author with long beard, balding, clad in the simple "peasant garb" he often preferred to wear as a gesture of solidarity with the underclasses, on his country estate Yasnaya Polyana. Tolstoy had become a figure of international recognition following publication of War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877), but in his later years deprecated his literary achievements and adopted a rigorous enforced poverty, liberated his serfs, built his own furniture, renounced meat, and endorsed non-violence.

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