War and Peace caricature

What it is

This is a colour caricature of Leo Tolstoy, published in the British magazine Vanity Fair in 1901 by the artist known as 'Spy'. It shows an elderly bearded man in a dark coat, leaning on a walking stick, with a rolled paper under his arm. The caption reads 'War and Peace'.

Why it matters

Vanity Fair regularly published caricatures of famous public figures of the day, and Tolstoy's appearance in it shows how widely known he had become outside Russia by the early twentieth century, largely through the fame of his novel War and Peace.

Look closer

• Why might a British magazine choose to caricature a Russian writer?
• What does the choice of caption, naming his most famous novel, suggest about how he was known abroad?
• What features has the artist chosen to exaggerate, and why?