Analysis of Gogol's story "Portrait", a creative study of the mission of art

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Who does not know Gogol's story "Portrait"? The analysis of the work is very interesting and instructive - an understanding comes of what semantic load the central image performs - the artist Chartkov. This character is an indicator of the conflict between real art and commercial art, obviously paid, well-fed, fundamentally turned by the sirloin to the life of most decent people. The disastrous metamorphoses caused by the Portrait and happened to a talented person are allegorically shown in the work.

St. Petersburg genre painter Chartkov paints good pictures, but vegetates on Vasilevsky Island in poverty. He tirelessly develops as an artist. In his paintings, smears of hard-hitting truth are visible. The latter causes irritation among solvent citizens. (During the period of work on "Portrait" Gogol was in Italy, temporarily leaving Russia due to harassment"Inspector"). But he stubbornly goes to his goal.

Everything changed the case. One day, at the Shchukin yard, Chartkov sees an image of an Asian man with amazingly painted (simply alive) eyes. And he buys this portrait for the last money. Gogol's work further tells about the ensuing mysterious metamorphoses of Chartkov's personality. He began to have terrible dreams, where the old man, painted on the portrait, was invariably present. Even after hanging these amazing eyes at night, the next morning the artist discovers a torn veil. Once he dreamed that the old man, having stirred, got out of the frame and began to count his money, packed in bags. The writer discreetly hid one of the sacks with the inscription "one thousand chervonets" behind the frame of the portrait.

(As you, dear readers, understand, the analysis of Gogol's story "Portrait" defines its genre as a mystical story, a story-allegory). Chartkov woke up from a knock on the door. The owner of the apartment building, having enlisted the support of the quarterly, came to expel him for non-payment. Quarterly, taking the painted portraits into account for the rent, accidentally grabbed the frame of the old man's portrait - suddenly a bag, seen in Chartkov's dream, fell on the floor. The discovered money allows the artist not only to pay off, but also to start a new life. He rents expensive housing on Nevsky Prospekt, renews his wardrobe, advertises orders.

The first customer is a we althy lady who ordered a portrait of her daughter. Chartkov takes up the job, but it doesn't go well. Let's think about what will tell usat this stage, the analysis of Gogol's story "Portrait"? Something inside the artist has changed. In a nutshell, the talent is gone. Slightly altering his earlier portrait of Psyche, he still gets the job done. Suddenly he is lucky, his paintings are in vogue. Orders are coming one after another. Chartkov is now we althy, we invite you. However, his new canvases, not marked by talent, surprise art connoisseurs who previously admired him. The creative crisis is accompanied by a personal crisis, now he is a curmudgeon and a curmudgeon. One day he is invited to the Academy of Arts for the presentation of a painting by an old friend.

Standing in front of Chartkov's talented painting is shocked. An analysis of Gogol's story "Portrait" in this symbolic episode shows that the author brings real art and its antagonist face to face. At first, Chartkov wants to regain his ability to create, but cannot. Closing himself in the workshop and working without sleep, he feels the impotence of his brush. The final realization of the lost talent deprives him of reason. The artist's days are numbered. Chertkov feverishly begins to buy available talented paintings. When he is found dead at home from consumption and nervous exhaustion, they discover that he destroyed everything that was ransomed. Everything but the portrait.

However, Gogol does not end his story here.

Already after the death of Chartkov, a portrait of an Asian appears at the St. Petersburg auction. The price of it quickly increases four times. Young artist B from Kolomna declares that he has a special right to purchase. And tells the story ofthe man depicted on the canvas - an Asian giant who gave loans. Loans were profitable, but they were invariably accompanied by the fatal fate of the borrowers. So, a nobleman close to the Court, having taken a loan, fell into disfavor with the empress, lost his mind and died. A young landowner who took a loan for a wedding suffered a complete personality deformation: a riot, an attempt on the life of the bride, and, finally, suicide.

The portrait was painted by the father of artist B, commissioned by an Asian. Ordering his image, he explained the idea. An extraordinary portrait painted will grow old, but the usurer will live forever. Having already begun work, the father of the artist B was frightened, because the image of the spirit of darkness was obtained. After the interruption of work, the sinister customer died. A friend of the artist begged for the portrait, but the canvas, carrying troubles, did not stay with him either. Since then, the terrifying portrait has appeared here and there…

The end of the story - in the spirit of American thrillers. The listeners, carried away by the story of artist B, suddenly notice that the terrible portrait has been stolen from the auction. Literary analysis of Gogol's story "Portrait" indicates the non-randomness and logical conditionality of such a plot twist. After all, the problem raised by the classic is eternal.

Are the ideas of "Portrait" relevant today? Undoubtedly. The problem of the role of a creative person and the significance of works of art is really important today. How lacking are now the "rays of light" illuminating the "dark realm"!