In 1887 Repin painted two portraits of Tolstoy and “The Ploughman” at Yasnaya Polyana

The Ploughman. Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy at the Plough

Ilya Repin, 1887.

In the course of a week at Yasnaya Polyana in August 1887, Repin painted two large portraits of Tolstoy, made a great many drawings and produced a small picture, "The Ploughman".

Repin watched Lev Tolstoy devote entire days, until late at night, to ploughing, walking behind a plough or a harrow across the field.

"In this paltry attire, grimly, with deep seriousness, there shone from beneath the thick brows, and keenly held sway over everything, the living eyes of a great genius, not only of art but of life itself," Repin wrote in his memoirs.

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