Tremendous 8.25 x 11.25 portrait of Leo Tolstoy dressed in a traditional belted tunic and seated in a half-length pose with his hands clasped together, signed and inscribed in Cyrillic in black ink, "To Pavel Alexandrovich Boulanger from Leo Tolstoy, Yalta, 26 Dec. 1901." Affixed to the original 10 x 15 studio mount, with reverse bearing an I. Datsiaro of St. Petersburg label. In very good to fine condition, with light scuffing and spotting to the image, slight overall warping, and the handwriting light but entirely legible. The recipieint, Pavel Alexandrovich Boulanger (1865-1925), was an official of the Moscow-Kursk Railway and friend of Tolstoy, who helped arrange transport to the Crimea in the summer of 1901, where Tolstoy was ordered by his doctor to convalesce from an illness. Unequivocally the largest signed Tolstoy portrait we have offered—an extraordinary example of the great Russian scribe.Format: Signed Photo