On June 10, 2025 – the birthday of the Yasnaya Polyana museum-estate – the Russian Museum of Photography in Nizhny Novgorod opened the exhibition “Sofia Tolstaya as a Photographer.”
Throughout Tolstoy’s life, he was photographed by a wide range of people: professional studios, newspaper photojournalists, friends, acquaintances, and family. Among renowned photographers like S. L. Levitsky, M. B. Tulinov, K. K. Bulla, A. I. Savelyev, and firms like “Sherer, Nabholz & Co.” and “Otto Renan,” one can confidently include amateur photographer Countess Sofia Tolstaya.
Her photographic collection is unique in scale (over 1,000 images), in content, and in the over 20 years it spans. The exhibition showcases 54 of her photographs and a photo album she compiled for publication.
Sofia Andreevna learned photography as a teen-ager, when she still lived with her parents. When she was 16, her father, a Kremlin court physician Andrei Behrs, met a young Greek photographer Kukuli. Kukuli taught Sofia photography and gave her a camera. “Photography was difficult then,” she later recalled. “You had to coat the glass with collodion, immerse it in a silver bath, fix it with mercury chloride, dry it, and do the same with albumen paper... I took several portraits and then gave it up when I began writing my first story.” These early photos by Sonia Behrs did not survive.
Nearly 30 years later, she returned to photography, learning a new camera and updated techniques. Her earliest surviving photos date to 1887. Although her photography was sporadic due to family and household obligations, after the death of her youngest son Vanichka in 1895, she began photographing more regularly. “To save myself from myself, I took up photography again, though still without much success,” she wrote to her sister. “I wanted to photograph the plaves at Yasnaya Polyana Vanichka and I loved most. I will be traying.”
Her photos cover themes such as: Tolstoy with family and friends, children and grandchildren, visitors to Yasnaya Polyana, Tolstoy and sports, weddings, portraits of Tolstoy, and Tolstoy with notable cultural and scientific figures. She also captured family events and her favorite views of the estate. After Tolstoy’s death, she photographed much less; her last images depict her descendants and her husband's grave.
Throughout Tolstoy’s life, he was photographed by a wide range of people: professional studios, newspaper photojournalists, friends, acquaintances, and family. Among renowned photographers like S. L. Levitsky, M. B. Tulinov, K. K. Bulla, A. I. Savelyev, and firms like “Sherer, Nabholz & Co.” and “Otto Renan,” one can confidently include amateur photographer Countess Sofia Tolstaya.
Her photographic collection is unique in scale (over 1,000 images), in content, and in the over 20 years it spans. The exhibition showcases 54 of her photographs and a photo album she compiled for publication.
Sofia Andreevna learned photography as a teen-ager, when she still lived with her parents. When she was 16, her father, a Kremlin court physician Andrei Behrs, met a young Greek photographer Kukuli. Kukuli taught Sofia photography and gave her a camera. “Photography was difficult then,” she later recalled. “You had to coat the glass with collodion, immerse it in a silver bath, fix it with mercury chloride, dry it, and do the same with albumen paper... I took several portraits and then gave it up when I began writing my first story.” These early photos by Sonia Behrs did not survive.
Nearly 30 years later, she returned to photography, learning a new camera and updated techniques. Her earliest surviving photos date to 1887. Although her photography was sporadic due to family and household obligations, after the death of her youngest son Vanichka in 1895, she began photographing more regularly. “To save myself from myself, I took up photography again, though still without much success,” she wrote to her sister. “I wanted to photograph the plaves at Yasnaya Polyana Vanichka and I loved most. I will be traying.”
Her photos cover themes such as: Tolstoy with family and friends, children and grandchildren, visitors to Yasnaya Polyana, Tolstoy and sports, weddings, portraits of Tolstoy, and Tolstoy with notable cultural and scientific figures. She also captured family events and her favorite views of the estate. After Tolstoy’s death, she photographed much less; her last images depict her descendants and her husband's grave.
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