Portrait of Leo Tolstoy 1907

Mikhail Nesterov painted this portrait of Leo Tolstoy with oils, and when you look closely you can see the artist’s process through the brushstrokes. It feels like the painting was made in a flurry, capturing a particular moment. The texture of the paint on Tolstoy’s face, for instance, has a beautiful, almost topographical quality, like the ridges and valleys of skin itself. Look at the white of Tolstoy's beard against the grey smock he is wearing. There is the thinnest shadow of violet paint just visible, giving the white form. The way Nesterov uses the paint, blurring the lines between figure and background, makes me think of Vuillard, especially in the way that you can barely distinguish the houses in the background. For me, the beauty of this painting is how it doesn't try to capture the famous writer in a fixed way. Instead, it lets the image emerge, capturing something more like the feeling of a man in nature.