This painting is a replica of Ivan Kramskoy’s first-ever portrait of Leo Tolstoy. The original was commissioned by Pavel Tretyakov — founder of the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. The painting has a very interesting story behind its creation as it took quite a while to get Tolstoy to pose for it.

In the summer of 1873, Kramskoy lived in a country house near Yasnaya Polyana. Having heard that Leo Tolstoy’s estate was located next door, he came to visit but did not find the owner: Tolstoy and his family were spending the summer on a farm in the Samara steppes.

Kramskoy came to Yasnaya Polyana once more in autumn. Leo Tolstoy was again nowhere to be seen so Kramskoy went looking for him. In a shed deep in the courtyard, he saw a laborer chopping wood. When asked if he knew the count laborer replied:

That’s how Kramskoy met Tolstoy.

Even though the artist was received very cordially in Yasnaya Polyana, Tolstoy persisted in his refusal to pose. It took Kramskoy two hours to convince Tolstoy to pose for him. They settled on Kramskoy painting two portraits: one for the writer’s family and the other for the Tretyakov Gallery. The very next day the artist set to work.

39 years later, after the writer’s death, a copy of his portrait was made by Nikolai Orlov, Leo Tolstoy’s favorite artist. Orlov was born into a peasant family, he graduated from the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, where he was taught by Vasily Polenov, Konstantin Korovin and Illarion Pryanishnikov. His graduation painting “The Dying Woman” was bought by Pavel Tretyakov for his gallery and exhibited among other works by the Peredvizhniki (an art group). Leo Tolstoy saw it at the exhibition and met the young artist.

The patronage of the great writer literally saved the artist’s life: in 1904, a fire destroyed all of Orlov’s property, and he, along with his family of 11 people, was left out in the streets in complete poverty. Leo Tolstoy invited the artist to move to Yasnaya Polyana and settle in a village hut and set up his workshop in a barn.

Leo Tolstoy often visited the artist and gave him advice. Orlov became friends with Tolstoy’s eldest son, Sergei, and used to work in his estate in the Tula region during summer. Nikolai Orlov painted genre scenes of peasant life, engaged in icon painting and decorated temples. Many of his paintings have been lost.