The portrait was created by Ksenia Boratynskaya, granddaughter of the poet Yevgeniy Boratynskiy. She was passionate about education and the idea of public education, and in 1907, she traveled to Yasnaya Polyana to visit Lev Tolstoy to familiarize herself with his work. This portrait was done during the visit to Yasnaya Polyana.
The drawing was created on the eve of the 79th anniversary of Leo Tolstoy. It was done with a pencil on a paper sheet. The steady, focused stare of Leo Tolstoy attracts particular attention in the portrait. It’s as if he’s staring at the viewer, and at the same time he’s looking inward.
Ksenia remembered: “I was very scared, when I entered his room, but as soon as I sat in front of him and felt the look of his deep, kind eyes on me, my unease passed and somehow I told him all the things that concerned me in a very easy way”. On this day Leo Tolstoy wrote in his diary: “August 19, 1907. Boratynskaya in the evening. A good person”.
Ksenia Boratynskaya has gone down in history as a teacher, artist and author of memoirs. In 1896, she enrolled in the Kazan Art School. However, in 1900, having not finished the course, she wrote: “I decided to give up everything and go on the path that had long fascinated me, and specifically I decided to become a teacher in the Shushary county school”. This step marked the beginning of many years of her productive pedagogical activity.
In 1902, Ksenia organized a boarding school for peasant children in the estate of the Boratynskiy family, where teaching was combined with handicrafts, outings, art and theatre.
The history of the trip and the meeting with Tolstoy was described in her memoirs “My memories” in the chapter “Yasnaya Polyana”.
After 1917 Ksenia worked in various institutions of public education. She accepted the revolution and would often say: “I can”t help but be grateful to the Bolsheviks for taking the heaviest burden off my shoulders: wealth. To be freed from any property, from any money, was wonderful! ”.
The drawing was created on the eve of the 79th anniversary of Leo Tolstoy. It was done with a pencil on a paper sheet. The steady, focused stare of Leo Tolstoy attracts particular attention in the portrait. It’s as if he’s staring at the viewer, and at the same time he’s looking inward.
Ksenia remembered: “I was very scared, when I entered his room, but as soon as I sat in front of him and felt the look of his deep, kind eyes on me, my unease passed and somehow I told him all the things that concerned me in a very easy way”. On this day Leo Tolstoy wrote in his diary: “August 19, 1907. Boratynskaya in the evening. A good person”.
Ksenia Boratynskaya has gone down in history as a teacher, artist and author of memoirs. In 1896, she enrolled in the Kazan Art School. However, in 1900, having not finished the course, she wrote: “I decided to give up everything and go on the path that had long fascinated me, and specifically I decided to become a teacher in the Shushary county school”. This step marked the beginning of many years of her productive pedagogical activity.
In 1902, Ksenia organized a boarding school for peasant children in the estate of the Boratynskiy family, where teaching was combined with handicrafts, outings, art and theatre.
The history of the trip and the meeting with Tolstoy was described in her memoirs “My memories” in the chapter “Yasnaya Polyana”.
After 1917 Ksenia worked in various institutions of public education. She accepted the revolution and would often say: “I can”t help but be grateful to the Bolsheviks for taking the heaviest burden off my shoulders: wealth. To be freed from any property, from any money, was wonderful! ”.
