The study of inter-influence of science, artistic creation and kinds of arts is topical at present. In this connection the author considers the experience of mutual relations of the great Russian writer L.N. Tolstoy and prominent painters, his contemporaries in historical situation of the late 19th - early 20th centuries. This experience convinces us that the priority in these relations belongs to the writer#s philosophical idea and word. In their creative work Russian painters directed their attention to the opinion of L.N. Tolstoy. Thus there was born spiritual unity which harmonized the society as a whole.