Ekaterina Tolstaya

Ekaterina Nikitichna Tolstaya, (Russian: Екатерина Никитична Толстая, November 22, 1939 – August 22, 2005) was a 20th century Russian artist. She was the granddaughter of the Russian writer Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy and sister of contemporary Russian author Tatyana Tolstaya.

Biography

After graduating from the Leningrad State University in 1963 with a degree in biology she moved to Moscow (circa 1965) where she worked as a research scientist while pursuing a career as a painter. In the 1970s she gained a certain degree of recognition which allowed her to become a full-time professional artist. Her primary medium was pastel portraiture and she was quickly recognized for her unique artistic vision, which was often characterized by her mystical, psychologically charged, intense and melancholic observations of her subjects. Tolstaya's work can be found in private collections in Russia, Denmark, Greece, Germany, Sweden, Italy, United States and many other countries. Although she was a prolific portraitist and an active member of the Graphic Artists' Union whose work was widely collected around the world, she still remains relatively unknown to the public in Russia and abroad.