The writer and playwright Leonid Andreyev was fond of photography. He also proved himself as a painter and graphic artist. During his university years and before he took up writing, he earned money by getting commissions for paintings and making reportage drawings for the “Courier” newspaper. However, Andreyev could not pursue an art education, as there were no opportunities to study drawing professionally in his hometown of Oryol.

According to the writer himself, even as a child, he “always drew from his imagination.” Although Andreyev painted expressive portraits of children and views of Italy in pastel, his works that do not depict nature are of particular interest. The pastel “Musicians” depicts the wordless characters of his drama “The Life of Man” — three musicians playing at the Man’s ball in Act Three.

Andreev gives detailed descriptions of his characters,

At the top right is the hand of a character named the Being in Gray. He holds a candle stump, symbolizing the Man’s life, which will inevitably go out at the end of the play. The action of this “stylized drama”, as defined by the author himself, unfolds from the moment of the Man’s birth to his very death. He walks through life, climbing a new step every time. At the same time, the Man does not know what awaits him at the next level, he cannot decipher the clues given to him by fate.

This work hung on the wall of the room of the writer’s second wife, Anna Ilyinichna, in the famous Andreyev house in the village of Vammelsuu. The house was built in 1908. The writer made sketches for it himself, and the project was drawn up by the architect Andrey Ol. Titled “Music”, the pastel drawing was displayed at the Third Exhibition of the “Association of Independents” in 1913.