# Visual materials — The Power of Darkness (Власть тьмы, 1886)

Sweep date: 2026-06-10. Intensity: HEAVY four-channel visual-materials sweep for a canonical work.
Channels: (1) Wikimedia Commons API (generator=search + imageinfo|extmetadata); (2) State Tolstoy Museum (tolstoy-iss.kamiscloud.ru) + Goskatalog (web.goskatalog.ru); (3) tolstoy.ru gallery; (4) émigré/scan archives (vtoraya-literatura.com, imwerden.de) + Théâtre Libre (André Antoine, Paris 1888) world-premiere materials + Посредник/Sytin 1887 first-edition title page.
Cache `docs/research/1886-the-power-of-darkness/visuals/` is git-ignored. RECORD licence + source url + usable for every item — metadata gates the later publish step.

STATUS: COMPLETE. 21 manifest entries (16 distinct visual subjects after dedup + 5 holdings/PDF notes). 15 images downloaded to the git-ignored cache. All four channels swept.
Tool note: Wikimedia Commons returns HTTP 429 without a descriptive User-Agent and under rapid-fire requests — set a UA and pace ~3 s between calls. The State Tolstoy Museum (KAMIS) public search does not phrase-filter (returns the whole 12 476-object fund for any query); only its `suggest` endpoint proves a term is indexed. Goskatalog is unreachable from this session.

| id | type | subject | related entity | holding | archiveId | access | rights | licence | usable | source URL | local path | note |
|----|------|---------|----------------|---------|-----------|--------|--------|---------|--------|------------|------------|------|
| VIS-01 | photograph | Leo Tolstoy portrait, 1887 (Sherer & Nabholz) | Leo Tolstoy | Wikimedia Commons | File:Leo Tolstoi 1887.jpg | open | PD | PD | yes | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leo_Tolstoi_1887.jpg | docs/research/1886-the-power-of-darkness/visuals/commons-tolstoy-portrait-1887.jpg | Dated 1887 — exact year the play was finished/published; primary visual anchor. Studio: Thomas Johnson / Sherer & Nabholz |
| VIS-02 | photograph | Leo Tolstoy, c.1880–1886 (Sass, Moscow / LoC) | Leo Tolstoy | Wikimedia Commons / Library of Congress | File:Leo Tolstoy, portrait.jpg | open | PD | PD | yes | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leo_Tolstoy,_portrait.jpg | docs/research/1886-the-power-of-darkness/visuals/commons-tolstoy-photo-sass-1880-1886.jpg | LoC Prints & Photographs; dated "between 1880 and 1886" — within the composition window. High-res (2467×3362) |
| VIS-03 | portrait (oil) | Ilya Repin — Portrait of Leo Tolstoy (1887) | Leo Tolstoy; Ilya Repin | State Tretyakov Gallery / Wikimedia Commons | File:Ilya Efimovich Repin (1844-1930) - Portrait of Leo Tolstoy (1887).jpg | open | PD | PD | yes | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ilya_Efimovich_Repin_(1844-1930)_-_Portrait_of_Leo_Tolstoy_(1887).jpg | docs/research/1886-the-power-of-darkness/visuals/commons-repin-tolstoy-1887.jpg | Painted 1887, the play's completion year; canonical Repin Tolstoy |
| VIS-04 | photograph (theatrical) | Scene from Tolstoy's The Power of Darkness (Brentano's, NY, 1922) | The Power of Darkness (staging) | Wikimedia Commons | File:Scene from The Power of Darkness.jpg | open | PD | PD | yes | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Scene_from_The_Power_of_Darkness.jpg | docs/research/1886-the-power-of-darkness/visuals/commons-scene-power-of-darkness-brentanos-1922.jpg | Production photo published 1922 by Brentano's NY; the only PD staging photo of the play on Commons. 3277×1593 wide format |
| VIS-05 | film still | The Power of Darkness — 1909 Russian film (Khanzhonkov) | The Power of Darkness (1909 film) | Wikimedia Commons | File:Power of Darkness 1909 still.png | open | PD | PD | yes | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Power_of_Darkness_1909_still.png | docs/research/1886-the-power-of-darkness/visuals/commons-power-of-darkness-1909-film-still.png | Still from the lost 1909 film by A. Khanzhonkov & Co.; reproduced in Khanzhonkov's memoirs. Low-res (496×352) |
| VIS-06 | photograph | M. G. Savina, 1881 | Maria Gavrilovna Savina | Wikimedia Commons | File:Maria Savina, 1881.jpg | open | PD | PD | yes | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Maria_Savina,_1881.jpg | docs/research/1886-the-power-of-darkness/visuals/commons-savina-1881.jpg | Alexandrinsky leading actress, 1881; figure in the Petersburg staging context. Low-res (687×998) |
| VIS-07 | photograph | M. G. Savina (Bergamasco, 1870s) | Maria Gavrilovna Savina | Wikimedia Commons | File:Actress Maria Savina.jpg | open | PD | PD | yes | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Actress_Maria_Savina.jpg | docs/research/1886-the-power-of-darkness/visuals/commons-savina-bergamasco-1870s.jpg | Higher-res Bergamasco studio portrait (1192×1920); prefer over VIS-06 for publication |
| VIS-08 | portrait (oil) | Valentin Serov — Portrait of Alexei Stakhovich (1911) | A. A. Stakhovich (identity caution) | Stanislavsky Memorial Museum, Moscow / Wikimedia Commons | File:Portrait of Alexei Stakhovich.jpg | open | PD | PD | yes | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Portrait_of_Alexei_Stakhovich.jpg | docs/research/1886-the-power-of-darkness/visuals/commons-stakhovich-serov-1911.jpg | IDENTITY CAUTION: this is Aleksei Aleksandrovich Stakhovich (1856–1919, MAT figure). The Stakhovich who read the play to Alexander III's circle was Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Stakhovich (1830–1913) — likely a different (related) man. Verify before publishing. Low-res scan (740×577) |
| VIS-09 | photograph | K. P. Pobedonostsev, 1896 | Konstantin Pobedonostsev | Wikimedia Commons | File:Konstantin Pobedonostsev, 1896.jpg | open | PD | PD | yes | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Konstantin_Pobedonostsev,_1896.jpg | docs/research/1886-the-power-of-darkness/visuals/commons-pobedonostsev-1896.jpg | Ober-Procurator who lobbied Alexander III to ban the play's stage production. 615×918 |
| VIS-10 | photograph | N. V. Davydov | Nikolai Vasilyevich Davydov | Wikimedia Commons | File:Nikolai V. Davidov.jpg | open | PD | PD | yes | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nikolai_V._Davidov.jpg | docs/research/1886-the-power-of-darkness/visuals/commons-davydov-portrait.jpg | Tula prosecutor who supplied Tolstoy the Koloskov criminal case that seeded the plot. 988×1425 |
| VIS-11 | photograph | E. M. Feoktistov (1828–1898) | Yevgeny Feoktistov | Wikimedia Commons | File:Feoktistov Eugeny (1828-1898).jpg | open | PD | PD | yes | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Feoktistov_Eugeny_(1828-1898).jpg | docs/research/1886-the-power-of-darkness/visuals/commons-feoktistov.jpg | Head of the Main Censorship Administration during the play's suppression. 566×810 |
| VIS-12 | portrait (oil) | Ivan Kramskoy — Portrait of Vladimir Chertkov | Vladimir Chertkov | Wikimedia Commons | File:Chertkov by Kramskoy.jpg | open | PD | PD | yes | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chertkov_by_Kramskoy.jpg | docs/research/1886-the-power-of-darkness/visuals/commons-chertkov-kramskoy.jpg | Chertkov co-founded Посредник, which issued the play in 1887. 944×1366 |
| VIS-13 | photograph (architecture) | Maly Theatre, Moscow (exterior, modern) | Maly Theatre | Wikimedia Commons | File:Moscow - Maly Theatre.jpg | open | CC BY 4.0 | CC-BY | yes (attrib.) | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Moscow_-_Maly_Theatre.jpg | — (not downloaded; modern context image) | Modern CC-BY exterior of the Maly, where the play was staged 1895; contextual only, attribution required. Not downloaded |
| VIS-14 | holdings note (manuscripts/staging) | «Власть тьмы» material in the State Tolstoy Museum (ГМТ) online collection | The Power of Darkness | State Tolstoy Museum (ГМТ) | tolstoy-iss.kamiscloud.ru (collection portal) | partial (portal up; search not phrase-filtering) | rights-reserved (ГМТ default; no licence field in records) | rights-reserved | no | https://tolstoy-iss.kamiscloud.ru | — | CONFIRMED HOLDINGS but no isolable IDs this session. The Angular/KAMIS portal's `/api/suggestForSearchingInAllEntityTypes/<term>` autocompletes «власть тьмы», «власть тьмы в мхт реж» (MAT production), «власть тьмы в частной» (private theatre) — so the museum indexes play-related objects. BUT the public `/api/search-entities/OBJECT` (POST {simpleSearchString,pageNumber,pageSize}) returns totalCount=12476 (the whole fund) for every query and does NOT phrase-filter, so specific manuscript/staging object IDs could not be isolated programmatically. Entity records (`/api/entity/OBJECT/<id>`) expose record_id (e.g. "ГМТ КП-4001/23"), fund, author, dates — NO licence field; ГМТ reproduction rights are reserved by default. Follow up: browse the portal UI manually or contact the museum to pull specific «Власть тьмы» manuscript/stage-photo object IDs |
| VIS-15 | holdings note (Goskatalog) | Goskatalog state catalogue — «Власть тьмы» objects | The Power of Darkness | Goskatalog (Государственный каталог Музейного фонда РФ) | web.goskatalog.ru / goskatalog.ru | NOT accessible this session | rights-reserved/unknown | unknown | no | https://web.goskatalog.ru | — | web.goskatalog.ru and goskatalog.ru both time out from this session (connection timed out after 25 s — geo-blocked / unreachable). Likely holds digitised manuscript pages and stage-production photos of the play across multiple Russian museums. Request manually / via a Russian-IP route. Goskatalog items are rights-reserved by default — record, do not assume PD |
| VIS-16 | holdings note (tolstoy.ru) | tolstoy.ru online gallery / fiction section | The Power of Darkness; Tolstoy 1886–87 | tolstoy.ru (official museum portal, Bitrix CMS) | tolstoy.ru/online/online-gallery/ ; tolstoy.ru/creativity/fiction/ | partial | rights-reserved (modern museum site; no licence stated) | rights-reserved | no | https://tolstoy.ru/online/online-gallery/ | — | NO play-specific usable image found. The online gallery is a flat set of uncaptioned thumbnails (`/images/home/media/NNNN.jpg`) not organised by work; site search (`/search/?q=Власть тьмы`) surfaced no play image; `/creativity/fiction/` listing returned HTTP 500. Any image on tolstoy.ru is a modern museum asset, rights-reserved, not for republish without clearance (matches the Kreutzer-dive finding) |
| VIS-17 | title page (first edition) | La Puissance des ténèbres — 1887 French first edition title page (Perrin, trans. Halpérine) | The Power of Darkness (1887 Fr. first ed.); André Antoine | Internet Archive (Univ. of Ottawa copy) | IA: lapuissancedest00tols (leaf n8) | open | PD (pub. 1887) | PD | yes | https://archive.org/details/lapuissancedest00tols | docs/research/1886-the-power-of-darkness/visuals/emigre-ia-1887-french-firsted-titlepage.jpg | Title page: "COMTE LÉON TOLSTOÏ — LA PUISSANCE DES TÉNÈBRES — DRAME EN CINQ ACTES — traduit avec l'autorisation de l'auteur par E. Halpérine — Paris, Librairie Académique Didier, Perrin et Cie, 1887." THIS is the very edition André Antoine staged at the Théâtre Libre, Paris, for the world premiere (10 Feb 1888). Highest-value first-edition artifact found. Verbatim: confirm against PDF before publication-quoting |
| VIS-18 | half-title (first edition) | La Puissance des ténèbres — 1887 French first edition half-title | The Power of Darkness (1887 Fr. first ed.) | Internet Archive | IA: lapuissancedest00tols (leaf n6) | open | PD (pub. 1887) | PD | yes | https://archive.org/details/lapuissancedest00tols | docs/research/1886-the-power-of-darkness/visuals/emigre-ia-1887-french-firsted-halftitle.jpg | Half-title leaf ("LA PUISSANCE DES TÉNÈBRES") with a later English-language pencil note ("pp 128-145 all mixed up, Scenes 9-17, Act 3"); secondary to VIS-17 |
| VIS-19 | portrait (photograph) | André Antoine (actor/director, founder of the Théâtre Libre) | André Antoine | Wikimedia Commons | File:André Antoine actor.jpg | open | PD | PD | yes | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Andr%C3%A9_Antoine_actor.jpg | docs/research/1886-the-power-of-darkness/visuals/emigre-antoine-portrait.jpg | Antoine directed and acted in the world premiere of the play (La Puissance des ténèbres) at his Théâtre Libre, Paris, 10 Feb 1888 — the play's first staging anywhere, four years before its Russian premiere. High-res (2128×2856) |
| VIS-20 | holdings note (Posrednik 1887 Russian first ed.) | «Власть тьмы, или Коготок увяз, всей птичке пропасть» — Посредник/Sytin, Moscow 1887, first Russian edition title page | The Power of Darkness (Russian first ed.) | not found in PD scan form this session | — | NOT found (IA/Commons) | rights-reserved/unknown | unknown | no | (target: tolstoy-iss.kamiscloud.ru / rsl.ru / Goskatalog) | — | The Russian first edition (Посредник, ed. Chertkov/Biryukov, printed by Sytin, Moscow 1887) title page was NOT located on Internet Archive (no Russian-language hits) or Wikimedia Commons. Émigré scan archives (imwerden.de, vtoraya-literatura.com) are text/PDF repositories with no exposed search form and are unlikely to hold this title-page image. Most probable holding: State Tolstoy Museum (ГМТ) or Russian State Library (RSL) — both rights-reserved. Follow up there |
| VIS-21 | facsimile (text/PDF) | La Puissance des ténèbres — full 1887 French first edition (Perrin) | The Power of Darkness (1887 Fr. ed.) | Internet Archive | IA: lapuissancedest00tols | open | PD (pub. 1887) | PD | yes (PDF) | https://archive.org/download/lapuissancedest00tols/lapuissancedest00tols.pdf | — (not downloaded; full-text PDF, not an image) | Complete PDF of the 1887 Perrin edition; useful for verbatim quotation of the Antoine-premiere French text. Not downloaded (text doc) |

## Dedup'd summary, grouped by subject

After the dedup-by-subject pass, one canonical entry per distinct image. Savina has two scans (VIS-06/-07) — VIS-07 is the higher-res canonical; VIS-06 retained as a dated (1881) variant.

**Tolstoy, 1886–87 (composition period)**
- VIS-01 — photograph, 1887 (Sherer & Nabholz) — PD, downloaded ★ closest-dated
- VIS-02 — photograph, c.1880–86 (Sass / LoC) — PD, downloaded, high-res
- VIS-03 — Repin oil portrait, 1887 — PD, downloaded

**The play — staging & adaptation**
- VIS-04 — staging scene photo (Brentano's 1922) — PD, downloaded ★ only PD staging photo found
- VIS-05 — 1909 film still (Khanzhonkov) — PD, downloaded
- VIS-13 — Maly Theatre exterior (modern, CC-BY) — context only, not downloaded

**The play — first edition**
- VIS-17 — 1887 French first-edition title page (Perrin; the Antoine-premiere text) — PD, downloaded ★ keystone first-edition artifact
- VIS-18 — 1887 French first-edition half-title — PD, downloaded
- VIS-21 — full 1887 French edition PDF — PD, not downloaded (text)
- VIS-20 — Russian first edition (Посредник/Sytin 1887) title page — NOT FOUND in PD scan form; gap, follow up at ГМТ/RSL

**World premiere — Théâtre Libre, Paris, 10 Feb 1888**
- VIS-19 — André Antoine portrait — PD, downloaded

**People around the play (genesis, censorship, staging)**
- VIS-10 — N. V. Davydov (Tula prosecutor, supplied the source case) — PD, downloaded
- VIS-08 — A. Stakhovich (Serov, 1911) — PD, downloaded, IDENTITY CAUTION (likely the MAT Stakhovich, not the 1830–1913 reader)
- VIS-06 / VIS-07 — M. G. Savina (Alexandrinsky actress) — PD, both downloaded; VIS-07 canonical
- VIS-09 — K. P. Pobedonostsev (lobbied the ban) — PD, downloaded
- VIS-11 — E. M. Feoktistov (chief censor) — PD, downloaded
- VIS-12 — V. G. Chertkov (Posrednik co-founder; Kramskoy) — PD, downloaded

**Institutional holdings — recorded, not retrieved**
- VIS-14 — State Tolstoy Museum (ГМТ): «Власть тьмы» holdings confirmed via suggest API; object IDs not isolable; rights-reserved
- VIS-15 — Goskatalog: unreachable this session; rights-reserved/unknown

Counts: 21 entries · 16 distinct subjects · 15 images downloaded (all PD) · 1 named gap (Russian first-edition title page) · 2 institutional follow-ups (ГМТ, Goskatalog).