Research|Visual materials — What Is Art? (1897–1898)

extracts

Visual materials — What Is Art? (1897–1898)

Last modified 10 August 2026 · view source

Keystone

tolstoy-1897-loc

field value
id tolstoy-1897-loc
type photograph
subject Leo Tolstoy, aged 69
relatedEntity Leo Tolstoy (author)
holding U.S. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
source Wikimedia Commons
access open
rights PD — US government/LOC item, no copyright claimed
licence PD
usable true
url https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leo_Tolstoy_1897_LCCN2014645312.jpg
localPath visuals/commons-tolstoy-1897.jpg
note LOC catalog LCCN 2014645312, digital ID ppmsca.37767; dated 1897, within the What Is Art? writing window.

Key people

maude-aylmer

field value
id maude-aylmer
type photograph
subject Aylmer Maude (1858–1938), English translator of What Is Art?
relatedEntity Aylmer Maude
holding Victoria and Albert Museum, Lafayette archive
source Wikimedia Commons
access open
rights CC BY-SA 4.0 — V&A / Lafayette photography studio, 1919
licence CC-BY-SA
usable true (with attribution)
url https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aylmer_Maude_(1858-1938).jpg
localPath — (not downloaded; CC-BY-SA 4.0 requires attribution; not PD)
note Photographed 21 October 1919 by Lafayette studio. Republication requires attribution to V&A / Lafayette archive. Not downloaded to avoid git confusion with licence-restricted files; URL sufficient for reference.

stasov-repin-1889

field value
id stasov-repin-1889
type portrait (oil painting, photographed)
subject Vladimir Stasov (1824–1906), art and music critic, ally of the realist school
relatedEntity Vladimir Stasov
holding unknown (painting); image sourced from art-catalog.ru via Commons
source Wikimedia Commons
access open
rights PD — Ilya Repin (1844–1930), painted 1889; Repin died 1930, >70 years
licence PD
usable true
url https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stasov_by_Repin_1889.jpg
localPath visuals/commons-stasov-repin-1889.jpg
note Repin’s 1889 portrait of Stasov. Stasov’s views on art (nationalist realism, opposition to “decadent” formalism) were a live debate context for Tolstoy’s treatise.

taneyev-sergei

field value
id taneyev-sergei
type photograph
subject Sergei Taneyev (1856–1915), composer; Tolstoy family friend whose presence irritated Tolstoy
relatedEntity Sergei Taneyev
holding unknown
source Wikimedia Commons
access open
rights PD — unknown author; Commons asserts PD
licence PD
usable true (with caveat: no machine-readable author or source on Commons record)
url https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Taneyev.jpg
localPath visuals/commons-taneyev.jpg
note Commons record lacks machine-readable author and source; the PD assertion is conventional for pre-1925 Russian photographs of deceased subjects. Verify if publishing externally.

grot-nikolai

field value
id grot-nikolai
type photograph
subject Nikolai Grot (1852–1899), philosopher; editor of Voprosy filosofii i psikhologii; arranged publication of What Is Art? in the journal
relatedEntity Nikolai Grot
holding Runivers digital archive
source Wikimedia Commons
access open
rights PD — Scherer, Nabgoltz & Co. studio, late 19th century; studio and subject both long deceased
licence PD
usable true
url https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nikolay_Grot.jpg
localPath visuals/commons-grot.jpg
note Dated “конец 19 века” (end of 19th century) by Runivers. Grot died 1899; he edited the censored journal version of What Is Art? and was a key interlocutor for Tolstoy.

chertkov-vladimir

field value
id chertkov-vladimir
type photograph
subject Vladimir Chertkov (1854–1936), Tolstoy’s closest disciple; coordinated foreign publication of the uncensored text
relatedEntity Vladimir Chertkov
holding tolstoy.ru photo archive
source Wikimedia Commons
access open
rights PD — A.F. Eichenvald, photographed 1883; photographer and subject both deceased >70 years
licence PD
usable true
url https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vladimir_Chertkov.jpg
localPath visuals/commons-chertkov.jpg
note Dated 1883, so pre-dates the What Is Art? period by ~15 years. No closer portrait found on Commons in a light sweep; acceptable for identification purposes.

Manuscript / first edition

what-is-art-first-edition

field value
id what-is-art-first-edition
type facsimile (early edition text, not MS)
subject What Is Art? — 1899 English edition (Maude translation, Walter Scott, London)
relatedEntity What Is Art?
holding Internet Archive / Wikimedia Commons
source Wikimedia Commons
access open
rights PD — 1899 publication
licence PD
usable true (text facsimile, not a title-page image)
url https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:What_is_art_-_1899.djvu
localPath — (djvu not downloaded; binary too large for visuals sweep; URL sufficient)
note This is the 1899 Maude English translation (Walter Scott, London), not the Russian first edition. The Russian первое издание (Posrednik / Свободное слово, 1898, Chertkov’s Free Word Press) has not been located as a PD image on Commons in this sweep. The Russian title page is a gap — needsReview.

Gaps / needsReview

gap notes
Tolstoy portrait 1897–1898 (Repin painting) Repin painted Tolstoy multiple times; a c.1896–1901 canvas is likely PD but not surfaced in this sweep with sufficient date precision. The LOC photograph (commons-tolstoy-1897.jpg) serves as keystone.
Russian first edition title page (1898) Чертков / Free Word Press, Purleigh/Christchurch, 1898. No Commons item found. Likely survives in RGALI or Lenin Library; not digitised publicly. Mark needsReview for future wiki-ingestion sourcing.
Maude portrait (PD) Only PD-candidate found is CC-BY-SA 4.0 (V&A / Lafayette, 1919). No pre-1927 PD photograph of Maude located in this sweep.