The artist is Tolstoy
In the picture, the artist portrayed himself, his wife, Anna Fedorovna Tolstoy, and daughters Elizabeth and Maria in the official apartment of the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. The rooms of the apartment were decorated in "Greek taste", Furniture and lamps were made according to the samples of the author himself. Here on Sundays there were often musicians, scientists, writers, including a. With. Pushkin, c. AND. Zhukovsky, and. AND. Krylov, p. AND. Vyazemsky and others. According to the memoirs of a contemporary, this house, "The very air of which, it seems, was saturated with an attraction to art, was constantly high school for young artists".
It was exhibited at the IAX exhibition in 1830 (No. 128) under the name „Vice president and honorary member of the Academy of Count Tolstoy. The prospect of the rooms, of which the first time the count itself is represented, surrounded by its family "(OR RNB, F. 708, n. P. Sobko, d. 732, l. 2).
In 1851 she was exhibited at an art exhibition of rare things belonging to individuals, under the name „Family painting “As the property of Count F. P. Tolstoy
Depicted: Author-Vice President of the IAX, his first wife is Countess Anna Fedorovna Tolstaya (Harvest. Dudina; 1792–1835), daughters of Elizabeth (1811–1836) and Maria (in the marriage of Kamenskaya; 1817–1898).
The picture is a self -portrait of an artist with a family and solved as a family scene "In the rooms". Wife and daughters are watching the work of the father. The action takes place in the apartment provided by the Tolstoy Academy of Arts. A thin connoisseur of antiquity, the artist furnished and decorated the house in accordance with his taste: he was a subtle expert and fan of antiquity. The whole family participated in the manufacture of the decoration, even the ammir furniture was made according to the owner’s drawings. Friends at home, his frequent guests were the most vivid creative personalities of that time. The family theater was a family hobby, Tolstoy itself equipped stage devices, a curtain, invented and created the scenery. Each detail of the house, every detail of the picture is here “with the blessing” of the owners. Even a dog, comfortably located on the floor in the depths of anfilad, enters the formula of a perfect house. Family portraits "in rooms" – a private territory created to "visit" relatives and friends. Unlike a ceremonial portrait, which, of course, could be family, they were important not the height of the status and the magnificence of the appearance of the depicted, but the state of home coziness, family harmony. Lyubov Shakirova. Family album of the Russian Museum // Portrait of Family. SPb, 2014. With. eight.
