Wars. Tolstoy's medallions acquired wide reputation not only in Russia, but also abroad. He was elected a member of almost all the European academies of fine arts. In 1861, he made his last medal, dedicated to the emancipation of the serfs. From 1820 to 1833, he employed the Neoclassical technique of "raw sketch," or refined outline drawings without shading and hatchwork, to execute 63 illustrations for the Dushenka of Ippolit Bogdanovich. As regards painting, Tolstoy specialized in interior scenes, full of symmetrical lines and Neoclassical statuary. His Family Portrait (1830) "betrays a Romantic fascination with both psychological detail and tricks of lighting, perspective, and frames". In 1816, he became involved in freemasonry, eventually participating in the organization of the so-called "Lancasterian schools," designed to propagate literacy. Although he was close to the founding fathers of the Decembrist societies, Tolstoy did not participate in their unsuccessful revolt. In 1826, he wrote two treatises for Nicholas I, About the moral state of troops of Russia and About the state of the Russian Empire in connection to its internal organization, in which he proposed a series of legislative, social and tax reforms. In 1838, Tolstoy composed the ballet The Aeolian Harp. He wrote the libretto, carried out sketches for costumes, and, in more than sixty pictures, determined the choreography. In 1842, he composed a second ballet, based on Greek myth, Echo. Unfortunately, neither of them was mounted. In 1843 his daughter Ekatarina Fedorovna Tolstoya was born. She would become a painter and marry Professor Eduard Junge. Pushkin, who regarded Tolstoy as the finest of contemporary Russian artists, referred to him, not surprisingly, in his novel Eugene Onegin. In an 1825 letter to his brother, Pushkin asked him to procure a vignette for the new edition of his poems: "What about having it done by Tolstoy's magic brush? No - too expensive, but how terrifically sweet" (the last line is taken from Ivan Dmitriev's fable "The Fashionable Woman"). References External links Tolstoy's works at abcgallery.com Biography at russianculture.ru Biography and some works at staratel.com 1783 births 1873 deaths Fyodor Petrovich Counts of the Russian Empire Russian painters Russian male painters 19th-century sculptors from the Russian Empire 19th-century male artists from the Russian Empire Russian male sculptors Russian composers Russian male composers Russian memoirists Jesuit College in Polotsk alumni Burials at Lazarevskoe Cemetery (Saint Petersburg) 19th-century memoirists 19th-century male musicians