Who did Pushkin's daughter become for Leo Tolstoy?
The model for Anna Karenina's appearance was Maria Gartung, née Pushkina – the eldest daughter of poet Alexander Pushkin.
This fact was confirmed by Leo Tolstoy himself, as well as by his sister-in-law, Tatyana Kuzminskaya, who left detailed memoirs of Gartung's acquaintance with Tolstoy:
"We were sitting at an elegantly set tea table when the door from the hallway opened and an unfamiliar lady in a black lace dress entered. Her light stride easily carried her rather plump, but upright and graceful figure.
I was introduced to her. Lev Nikolayevich was still sitting at the table. I saw him staring intently at her.
"Who is this?" he asked, approaching me.
"Ms. Gartung, the daughter of poet Pushkin." "Oh, yes," he drawled, "now I understand… Look at those Arabian curls on the back of her head. She’s remarkably well-bred."
That evening, Tolstoy and Hartung were chatting. And then he based his heroine's appearance on her, not forgetting the thick, curly hair, the curls on the back and temples, and the black dress. In the early drafts of the novel ‘Anna Karenina’, she was even referred to as ‘Pushkina’.
