Analysis of Gogol’s novel “Portrait”, a creative study of the mission of art

Who doesn’t know Gogol’s novel “Portrait”? The analysis of the work is very interesting and instructive - an understanding comes of what semantic load is performed by the central image - the artist Chartkov. This character is an indicator of the conflict between real art and commercial art, knowingly paid, well-fed, fundamentally turned fillet part to the life of most decent people. The fatal metamorphoses caused by the Portrait and occurring with a talented person are allegorically shown in the work.

The St. Petersburg painter-genre artist Chartkov writes good paintings, but vegetates in poverty on Vasilyevsky Island. He is tirelessly developing as an artist. In his paintings, smears of unpleasant truth are visible. The latter causes irritation among solvent citizens. (Gogol was in Italy while he was working on Potret, temporarily leaving Russia due to the hijacking of the Inspector General). But he stubbornly goes to his goal.

Everything changed the case. Once at the Chukkov Shchukinsky yard, he sees an image of an Asian man with amazingly written (just alive) eyes. And he buys this portrait for the last money. Gogol's work further narrates the subsequent mysterious metamorphoses of Chartkov’s personality. He began to dream terrible dreams, where the old man painted on the portrait invariably was present. Even hanging these amazing eyes at night, the next morning the artist discovers a torn blanket. One day he dreamed that the old man, stirring, climbed out of the frame and began to count his money, packed in bags. The writer quietly hid one of the bags with the inscription "a thousand pieces of gold" behind the frame of the portrait.

(As you, dear readers, understand, the analysis of Gogol’s novel “Portrait” defines her genre as a mystical novel, a novel allegory). Chartkov woke up from a knock on the door. The owner of the apartment building, having secured the support of the quarterly, came to expel him for non-payment. The quarterly person, taking the portraits taken into account for the rent, accidentally took on the frame of the portrait of an old man - suddenly a bag fell on the floor, which Chartkov saw in a dream. Discovered money allows the artist not only to pay, but also to start a new life. He rents expensive housing on Nevsky, renews his wardrobe, gives announcements on the acceptance of orders.

The first customer is a wealthy lady who ordered a portrait of her daughter. Chartkov takes on the job, but it does not go well. Let’s think about what the analysis of Gogol’s novel “Portrait” will tell us at this stage? Something inside the artist has changed. To speak very briefly - talent has disappeared. Slightly changing his earlier portrait of Psyche, he still does the work. Suddenly he is lucky, his paintings are in fashion. Orders go one after another. Chartkov is now wealthy, we invite. However, his new canvases, not marked by talent, amaze art connoisseurs who had previously admired him. The creative crisis is accompanied by a personal crisis; now it is a miser and a squabble. Once he is invited to the Academy of Arts to present the canvas of an old friend.

Standing in front of a talented picture of Chartkov is shocked. An analysis of Gogol’s novel “Portrait” in this symbolic episode shows: the author brings real art and its antagonist face to face. First, Chartkov wants to regain his ability to create, but he cannot. Closing himself in the workshop and working without sleep, he feels the powerlessness of his brush. The final realization of lost talent robs him of reason. The artist's days are numbered. Chertkov feverishly begins to buy affordable talented paintings. When they find him at home dead from consumption and nervous exhaustion, they discover that he destroyed everything he bought. Everything except the portrait.

However, Gogol does not end his story.

After the death of Chartkov, a portrait of an Asian appears at a St. Petersburg auction. The price of it is growing rapidly four times. Young artist B from Kolomna declares that he has a special right to purchase. And he tells the story of the man depicted on the canvas - an Asian giant who gave loans. The loans were beneficial, but they were invariably accompanied by the fatal fate of the borrowers. So, approaching the nobleman’s Court, taking credit, fell into disfavor of the empress, lost his mind and died. The young landowner, who took out a loan for the wedding, suffered a complete deformation of his personality: violence, attempt on the life of the bride, and, finally, suicide.

The portrait was painted by the father of artist B, commissioned by an Asian. When ordering his image, he explained the plan. The extraordinary portrait painted will age, and the moneylender will live forever. Having already begun work, the father of artist B was frightened, because the image of the spirit of darkness was obtained. After the interruption of work, the sinister customer died. The portrait was begged by a friend of the artist, but the canvas, bearing troubles, did not stop too. Since then, a terrible portrait appears here and there ...

The end of the story is in the spirit of American thrillers. Enthusiastic about the story of artist B, listeners suddenly notice that a terrible portrait was stolen from auction. A literary analysis of Gogol’s novel “Portrait” indicates the 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 the creative person and the significance of works of art is really important today. How lacking now are the "rays of light" illuminating the "dark kingdom"!