Count Fedor Tolstoi

This small, clearly signed and dated ("Oleszkiewicz /1812") oil on copper painting depicts a young well-known Russian aristocrat and friend of Alexander Pushkin, Count Fedor Ivanovich Tolstoi, called "Amerikanets" ("American") wearing a green dressing-gown trimmed with fur, seating at his writing desk. The desk features a column and a stack of books (among them is one by Swedish scientist Carl von Linne) behind it.