Jan Styka portrait of Leo Tolstoy, Paris, circa 1930
About this postcard
A bust-length portrait of Leo Tolstoy in old age, his full white beard and hair framing a weathered face, a deep crimson robe falling over his shoulders against a loosely brushed dark green ground. The broad, visible brushwork and warm flesh tones give the picture the weight of an academic oil portrait rather than a casual likeness. The painting is by Jan Styka, a Polish artist known for large historical panoramas and religious canvases, who worked in Paris and painted the Russian writer during Tolstoy's later years. By the 1930s, when this card was printed, Tolstoy had been dead for two decades, but his fame as the author of War and Peace and Anna Karenina, and as a moral thinker, carried his image widely, which explains the trilingual caption naming him in French, Russian, and English.
Postcard Details
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Postcard record
| Publisher | Lapina |
|---|---|
| Series | 127. |
| Condition | Good |
| Publisher | Lapina, Paris, France |
| Notes | Pronounced woven linen/canvas texture across the whole image; thin white margin at the edges; light edge and corner wear with minor scuffing at the lower corners. No readable postmark; unused divided-back card. Linen-textured stock, printed in Paris by Lapina, series 127; caption names Jan Styka's portrait of Tolstoy in French, Russian and English. Small pencil dealer mark "UH" in the stamp box area. |
Cite this card
Jan Styka portrait of Leo Tolstoy, Paris, circa 1930, postcard, c. 1930. PostalPast Collection. https://postalpast.com/postcard/jan-styka-portrait-of-leo-tolstoy-paris-circa-1930. Accessed November 3, 2026.