If She Were the Sun

"He tried not to look long at her, as if she were the sun, yet he saw her, like the sun, even without looking." - Leo Tolstoy.

This is one of the longer quotations we've included in our collection, but it's such a good one that we just had to. In addition, it has been the most requested illustration, so this one is for you! We, like many, are captivated by  Tolstoy's elegant description, and are intrigued by the idea of love (infatuation?) having a luminous quality that overwhelms our senses and penetrates us against our will.

This passage is from the scene in which Levin sees Kitty ice skating, and our illustration draws inspiration from that. In it, a skater and a winter tree are all that remain of a man's silhouette, as it becomes impossible for him to keep his desires under his hat. 

View print.