Bidspirit auction | TOLSTOY ILYA: (1866-1933)

TOLSTOY ILYA: (1866-1933) - TOLSTOY ILYA: (1866-1933) Russian writer, the third child and second son of Leo Tolstoy. Vintage signed and inscribed 10 x 13 photograph of Tolstoy in an atmospherically lit profile head and shoulders pose. Photograph by Frank C. Bangs of Los Angeles and bearing his credit to the lower edge. Signed by Tolstoy in white fountain pen ink to the image, 'To Margaret Kimball, with best regards, Count Ilya Tolstoy' . The ink is a little light in places, although completely legible. Some silvering to the edges and various surface marks to the image, FR Frank C. Bangs (1873-1928) American photographer who was the official photographer for the Metropolitan Opera and is widely regarded by historians as one of the very first, if not the first, major Broadway portrait photographers to be officially dispatched to the West Coast to capture the rising stars of the silent film era. Bangs operated out of Hollywood from 1920-28.