This Picture is as Good as a Perfect Work of Art

A. N. Wilson, 'Tolstoy', 1988:

"...Tolstoy's many letters to Bashilov make fascinating reading, emphasising not merely how much he cared about the finished book, but also how vividly he saw each scene and each character in his mind’s eye. If Bashilov sent a sketch which displeased Tolstoy, he got a quick letter back telling him what was wrong. They are not angry offensive letters, but they have an eye for everything:...The advice pours out, revealing that all the characters in War and Peace are just as real to Tolstoy- more real, really- than characters in real life.

..."

War and Peace miniseries on BBC seems to have become a major hit. This has led to a lot of interest in the book and its author all over again.

One of the most interesting things I recently learned about Tolstoy was how deeply he cared about the illustrations that went into the book. (This is in sharp contrast to most Marathi writers, who at best are indifferent to how their work is illustrated.)

Alexander Chee writes in New Republic on February 3 2016:

"In the summer of 1866, as Leo Tolstoy prepared for his serialized novel War and Peace to be published as a single volume, he wrote to illustrator Mikhail Bashilov (M. S. Bashilov), hoping to commission drawings for the new edition of the novel, which he referred to by its original title, 1805. When Bashilov questioned a detail of historical verisimilitude—shouldn’t the turn-of-the-nineteenth century officers be wearing powdered wigs?—Tolstoy responded:

When I first began writing 1805, I discovered somewhere that powder had been done away with at the beginning of [Czar] Alexander’s reign, and I wrote on that basis; I later came across evidence, as you did, that it was still used in 1805. I didn’t know what to do. … Decide for yourself, whatever is most agreeable and convenient for you. In favor of drawing people wearing powder is the reason that if there is positive proof that powder was in use in 1805, I can correct the new edition and allude to powder and uniform. In fact it’s probably necessary to draw people wearing powder and in historically accurate uniform, to which I shall try to be faithful in the new edition...."

Now, see how Tolstoy gets the exact thing he is looking for, in the illustration of Pierre Bezukhov, from Bashilov.

On the pictures above of Pierre, Tolstoy comments on April 4, 1866:

"His face is good (if only there could be more of a tendency to philosophizing in his forehead – little wrinkles or bumps over his eyebrows), but his body is small – it should be wider and stouter and more massive."....

and suggests...

"Pierre might be portrayed lying on a couch and reading a book, or, having torn himself away from his book, gazing distractedly and thoughtfully ahead through his glasses – he’d have leaned on one arm with the other tucked between his legs – actually, this is really better than him standing, though you, of course, know best."

  
All pictures by M. S. Bashilov (1821-1870)

And after seeing the result,  he writes:

"This picture is as good as a perfect work of art may possibly be; that is, it cannot be any better."

(courtesy: http://sites.utoronto.ca/…/tolstoy-and…/works/war/pierre.htm)