In different eras, masters of Russian fine art have always strived to reflect in an artistic image the creative personality of the genius of Russian music — Pyotr Tchaikovsky, who had an elegant appearance, was able to please people of dissimilar tastes, and was a true artist. Nevertheless, only a few portraits were created during the great composer’s life.

Tchaikovsky became a popular model already in the 20th century. His image was captured by such famous Soviet artists and sculptors as Grigory Svetlitsky, Vasily Svarog, Aleksey Rudnev, Vera Mukhina, Zinovy Vilensky and others.

A soviet artist and museologist, Alexei Alexandrovich Volter studied under outstanding artists at the St. Petersburg Drawing School of the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts: Grigory Bobrovsky, Arkady Rylov and Nicholas Roerich. He also took private lessons from Pavel Chistyakov. Using Volter’s sketches, masters from Palekh, Mstyora and the Kholuy created works, depicting a new Soviet reality.

Interestingly, many contemporaries considered Tchaikovsky a bad pianist. Performed by the composer, oddly enough, his brilliant music did not impress. Probably, the reason lies in the fact that, as a pianist, Tchaikovsky deliberately hid from the audience the most touching, sincere moments of his own works. According to the famous critic Herman Laroche, the piano abilities of his great friend were enormous, he retained strength and flexibility in his fingers for a relatively long time. However, the composer did not particularly strive to perform his creations on the piano in front of a big audience.

Performing his compositions, Tchaikovsky was afraid of getting emotional and crying. It was as if he felt a sense of embarrassment that he had spoken so openly in his music.