Portrait of Fyodor Dostoyevsky

What it is

This oil painting by Vasily Perov shows Fyodor Dostoevsky seated, hands clasped, gazing to one side. It was painted in 1872 in Staraya Russa, commissioned by the collector Pavel Tretyakov as part of a series of portraits of leading Russian cultural figures, and is held in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.

Why it matters

Perov visited Dostoevsky daily for a week to study his expressions before painting him, and the result was praised by contemporaries, including the painter Ivan Kramskoi, for its psychological depth. According to Dostoevsky's wife Anna, Perov captured the writer in a typical moment of being absorbed in thought. The portrait became the model for most later images of Dostoevsky, including a statue outside the Russian State Library.

Look closer

• What does the writer's pose and expression suggest about how Perov wanted him to be seen?
• Why might an artist spend a week simply observing someone before painting their portrait?
• How might this 'official' commissioned image differ from a casual photograph of the same man?