1818
Brown paper, gouache
17.4 x 23.8 (drawing delineated)

Fedor Tolstoy’s still life drawings are one of the most original phenomena of Russian graphic art. Their source was the then fashionable albums of flowers and the still life – trompe l’oeil works that were popular as early as the 18th century. The artist seems to place a branch of currants on a flat surface in such a way that they cast a shadow, and next to that he draws a drop of dew with extreme naturalism. A playful effect is created – the real background of the sheet on which the drawing is made seems to be just an artistic rendering of paper. Being a man of the age of Romanticism, Tolstoy would like not so much to deceive as to intrigue the viewer, mixing illusion and reality. The artist gave the first drawing of this kind to the Empress Elizaveta Alekseevna, the wife of Alexander I.