The Korchagins are characters in the Leo Tolstoy novel “Resurrection”. In the novel, the writer sought to create a complete picture of the life of the Russian people in the second half of the 19th century, from the lowest strata to the high society. Tolstoy showed the Korchagins with obvious irony: their craving for ostentatious luxury only emphasizes the insignificance of their moral ideals.

The drawing “Breakfast at the Korchagins” by the artist Leonid Pasternak shows a family at a table. General Korchagin is standing in military uniform with wines and entrées, his daughter Missy in a black dress is beside him and Kolosov is on the opposite side with a fork in hand.

Leonid Pasternak was a painter and a master of genre compositions and illustrations. He studied at the Grekov Odessa Art School, the Moscow studio of Yevgraf Sorokin and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, and took etching lessons from Ivan Shishkin. He made a number of illustrations to the works of Mikhail Lermontov and Leo Tolstoy’s novels “War and Peace” and “Resurrection” at the author’s request.

Tolstoy enjoyed Pasternak’s watercolor illustrations for “War and Peace”. When he saw them, he felt the artist as “a kindred spirit — in perception, in essence, and approach to artistic creation.” Pasternak came to Yasnaya Polyana to get acquainted with the manuscript of the “Resurrection” and later recalled his impressions:

Upon his return to Moscow, Pasternak collected the materials and got to work. He visited courts, prisons and made study sketches. The artist brought his first portrait sketches — “Katyusha’s Morning” and “Nekhludoff’s Morning” — to Yasnaya Polyana, and Tolstoy’s fervent approval served as a precious reward for his creative efforts and commitment.

All of Pasternak’s subsequent drawings were highly praised by Leo Tolstoy. The sensitivity of the artist, the deep understanding of the novel’s ideas and the rare compatibility of artistic vision and the source material brought real joy to the writer, sparked his imagination, spurred new thoughts and images in the author’s mind. Leonid Pasternak’s illustrations for “Resurrection” are so expressive, on-point and precise that they serve both as a reflection of the writer’s vision and complement the text, painting a clear picture of the novel’s world.