This illustration for the Leo Tolstoy novel “War and Peace” depicts Prince Andrey Bolkonsky in a white uniform inviting Natasha Rostova in a light pink open dress to waltz in the center of the hall. Next to Natasha is her mother with a shawl draped over her shoulders, and on Prince Andrey’s left is Pierre Bezukhov in a dark tailcoat.

The creator of the illustration was one of the Peredvizhniki (“Wanderers” — an artistic group) and a member of the Russian Academy of the Arts, Leonid Osipovich Pasternak. He first met Tolstoy in the spring of 1893 in the halls of the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. The young artist was introduced to Leo Tolstoy, who commended the artist’s paintings and drawings. Before leaving, Leonid Osipovich told Tolstoy that he had made several illustrations for the novel “War and Peace” and would like to show them to the author. Tolstoy became interested and asked the artist to come for a visit and bring the drawings.

Sometime later, in the hall of the writer’s house in Khamovniki, Pasternak showed Tolstoy his works. The artist recalled this moment in his memoirs:

Pasternak’s watercolors were not like the usual illustrations of that time. He was the first Russian artist to consider that illustration “is a serious, self-sufficient and independent artform.” He was interested in the overall idea of the author, he tried to convey not so much the plot but the individuality of the characters, the flavor of the era, and the mood of each scene. It was this advertence to the essence of the novel, and not to the surface-level similarities, that attracted Tolstoy so much.

After successfully finishing the illustrations to “War and Peace”, Tolstoy invited Pasternak to come to Yasnaya Polyana and read the manuscript of his novel “Resurrection”. The artist carefully perused it for references, visited courts, prisons and made study sketches. Leo Tolstoy held these drawings in high regard, and they later became the first illustrations for the novel.