Auguste Rodin

Born in Italy to a Russian father and an American mother, Paul Troubetzkoy trained as a sculptor in Milan. In 1897 he came to Russia and developed a friendship with Leo Tolstoy. Troubetzkoy’s portrait of Tolstoy is what helped him to earn a first prize at the 1900 Paris Universal Exposition—a prize he shared, however, with Auguste Rodin. Rodin was therefore both a friend and a rival. Apart from Rodin, Troubetzkoy’s roster of artistic sitters includes Anatole France, Giacomo Puccini, and George Bernard Shaw.