artwork image
Image courtesy of the Museo del Paesaggio, Palazzo Viani Dugnani, Verbania

Leo Tolstoy (Lev Tolstoj)

Year:

1898

Dimensions (cm):

98 x 84 x 55

Dimensions (inches):

38.58 x 33.07 x 21.65

Medium:

Sculptures

Material:

plaster, grey/green patina

Current location:

Verbania Pallanza, Museo del Paesaggio: inv. T n. 310

Description Provenance Exhibitions Bibliography

Paul Troubetzkoy met for the first time the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) in 1898. It is likely that the present bust had been completed between the 15th and 23rd of April 1898 (L. Scerbuchina, Skul’ptor P. Trobeckoj I Lev Tolstoj, in Iskusstva, n. 9, 1967, p. 63). A picture from that year is conserved at the Lev Tolstoj Museum of Moscow, which documents the final phase of the work. The date of the plaster is also confirmed by the bronze derived from it, signed and dated 1898 and preserved at the Museum der bildenden Kunste of Lipsia (inv. 84), which became part of the permanent collection in 1905. The bronze which had been exhibited at the Mir Iskusstva in 1899 was reproduced in their magazine (1899, n. 3-4, ripr. p. 45). Sold just after the exhibition in St. Petersburg, it is mentioned in the memoirs of Tolstoy’s assistant, Bulgakov.

Paul Troubetzkoy (1866-1938), Italy, until 1938;
By descent to the heirs, Rhoda Muriel Marie Somerwell and Luigi Troubetzkoy;
Donated to the Museo del Paesaggio, 1938-1939

III Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte, Venezia 1899;
Catalogue of Sculpture by Prince Paul Troubetzkoy. The American Numismatic Society at the Hispanic Society of America, New York 1911 (march) n. 25;
Catalogue of Sculpture by Prince Paul Troubetzkoy . The Art Institute, Chicago 1912 (february) n. 15;
A Collection of Sculpture by Prince Paul Troubetzkoy, City Art Museum of St. Louis 1912 (march), n. 15;
Prima Esposizione Nazionale d'arte della Secessione, Rome 1913, n. 8;
Exhibition of Paul Troubetzkoy, Newport 1915 (august-september) n. 5;
Catalogue of an exhibition of Sculpture by Prince Paul Troubetzkoy , Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco 1917 (September), n. 12;
Museo del Paesaggio, Verbania, 1990, n. 68

V. Pica, "L'Arte Mondiale a Venezia nel 1899" in Emporium, vol. X, 1899, p. 168 ripr.;
L'Ara, 11-12 luglio 1910;
"Tolstoj ha posato per Troubeyzkoy"Giornale di Sicilia, 12-13 luglio 1910;
C.L. Borgmeyer,"Prince Paul Troubetzkoy" in Fine Arts, n. 1, luglio 1911, p. 5;
I. Falbo, "La Mostra della Secessione" Il Messaggero, 24-31 marzo, 1913;
"Alla Mostra della Secessione la scultura", La Vita, 24-25 aprile 1913 ripr.;
R. Giolli, Paul Troubetzkoy, Milan, 1913,. Gavrilovich, in Paolo Troubetzkoy, 1990,exh cat.,p. 132, n. 68, tavola colori snp.;
Paolo Troubetzkoy, La Collezione del Museo del Paesaggio, Palazzo Viani Dugnani, Verbania, 2017 p. 110