Count
Feodor Petrovich Tolstoy was born into a noble family. In 1802, he graduated
from the Naval Academy and the same year entered the St. Petersburg Academy
of Fine Arts. In 1804, he retired from military service and devoted himself
to art. He was fond of drawing and painting, but his highest success was
in wax modeling.
In 1810, he was appointed designer of medals in the St. Petersburg Mint.
Tolstoy had very good results there. One of his more interesting works
of the late 1810s is a series of 21 medallions devoted to the Russian-Napoleonic
war of 1812-1814.
Many representatives of the Tolstoy family are known in history as really
talented. Feodor Tolstoy is also characterized as having versatile talents.
In 1838, he wrote a ballet Aeol’s Flute, libretto, sketches of set
designs and costumes and 60 sketches in which he denoted the choreography
of the ballet. Four years later he wrote another ballet – Echo.
In 1828, he became vice-president of the St. Petersburg Academy, in 1842
- professor, in 1859 - the first assistant of the president. By the end
of his life he began to go blind and had to stop painting.
Bibliography: Russian Water-Colour in the Collection of Hermitage, Leningrad.
Moscow. Iskusstvo. 1975.
Paintings of the 18th-early 20th centuries from the Reserves of
the Russian Museum. by K. Mikhailova and G. Smirnov. Leningrad. 1982.
