/ / / Two artists in Gogol's story "Portrait"

The main problem that Gogol raises in the story "" is the problem of choosing imaginary or true art. The writer tried to find a solution to this problem in the images of the two artists described on the pages of the work.

At the beginning of the story, Gogol introduces us to the young artist Chartkov, who is hanging around the art shop. His attention is drawn to a very old portrait. To Chartkov, this work seems unfinished, but the look of the old man depicted in the picture seemed to bewitch the artist and he buys the portrait for the last money.

It is worth noting that Chartkov was a really talented artist. He put a piece of his soul into his work. The young artist tried to depict every detail as realistically as possible. He admired the work of the great masters. Despite his talent, Chartkov was very poor and lived in poverty. He did not understand how other artists, drawing mediocre paintings, earn big money.

Buying a portrait of an old man changed the life of a young artist. At night, he had a dream in which he saw how the old man from the portrait came to life. He sat down on Chartkov's bed and began counting some bundles. On one of them, the artist noticed the inscription "1000 chervonny". This moment shows Chartkov's penchant for being tempted by wealth and fame. In the morning he did find a bundle of money. The artist spends part of the money on canvases and paints, but, unable to resist the temptation, he rents a luxurious apartment on Nevsky Prospekt and commissions a laudatory article in the newspaper. After that, there was no release from customers. Chartkov still tries to paint portraits as accurately and naturally as possible, but the client does not like the work. Then he decides to write the way the customers want. By this Chartkov gives his talent and loses his purpose.

Once a poor artist becomes a fashionable artist. With his opinion begin to be considered, he is invited to evaluate the work of other masters. Chartkov is also changing internally. Now he is not afraid to criticize others, he considers artists who paint pictures for months mediocre.

One day he is invited to evaluate a painting by a young artist. Chartkov, looking at the work, understands how magnificent it is. Now he realizes that he sold his talent. Chartkov begins to buy up the works of great artists and destroy them. Ultimately, he goes insane and dies.

Next, we find ourselves at an auction where a portrait of an old man is exhibited. When the auction was in full swing, one artist claimed the rights to this painting. He told the audience a story about the person depicted in the portrait. This man was very rich, anyone could borrow money from him. But everyone who touched the old man's money ended their lives tragically. One day this old man asked the narrator's father to paint his portrait. The work was very tiring for the master. Ultimately, he abandoned her. And the life of the artist was filled with anger and envy. Then he decided to go to the monastery, where he painted the icon of the Birth of Jesus Christ. This icon made it possible to heal the soul of the artist. And he bequeathed to his son to find and destroy the portrait of the old man.

In the images of two artists, Gogol showed us how destructive the thirst for money and fame can be, and that art must be true.

In the light of this program, SPO institutions are offered for compulsory study of the story

N.V. Gogol "Portrait".

The study of the story is given 2 hours. During this time, it is necessary to study the ideological orientation, composition, and artistic value of the work.

It is necessary to teach students the analysis of the work, and for this you need to know the history of the creation of the story, master the text, know the information from the biography of the writer. This development has a practical focus:

help the teacher to cope with the above tasks, organize the study time correctly, give a complete picture of this work, the problems that N.V. Gogol set for himself.

The methodology of teaching literature has developed several approaches to the implementation of the problematic analysis of a literary work: the allocation of moral, aesthetic, philosophical problems in a literary text.

In my work, I relied on monographs and numerous scientific articles by Professor V. G. Marantsman.

He writes: “Problem-based learning as a structure of the educational process is a system of interconnected and increasingly complex problem situations, during which the student, under the guidance of a teacher, masters the content of the subject, the methods of studying it and develops the qualities necessary for a creative attitude to science and life” .

“Portrait” is the most important work not only for Russian, but also for world literature. It has not lost its importance in our time. After all, there are always rich people in the world who want to become even richer, and poor people who want to take the place of the rich. This problem can be attributed to the category of eternal problems.

A. S. Pushkin wrote about this in the works “The Queen of Spades” and “Mozart and Salieri”. At present, the problem posed by N.V. Gogol is particularly acute. What is more important true art or easy money? Gogol claims that true talent is God's gift,

to waste it in vain for the sake of profit, the artist simply does not have the right.

Therefore, the hero of the story, Chartkov, perishes: he failed to defend his art in the face of the thirst to enrich himself financially.

In my methodological development, I present:

• materials for the teacher from the history of the creation of the story “Portrait”;
• development of the lesson in accordance with the scheduling.

Plan.

1. Introduction.
2. The story of N. V. Gogol “Portrait” (material for the teacher).
4. Methodological development of a lesson on the story of N. V. Gogol “Portrait”.
5. Literature

Introduction

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol divided all his stories into two large cycles: “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka”, “Mirgorod” and “Petersburg Tales”. The thought of the merciless and destructive power of money runs through many works of the last cycle. "Portrait" is one such story.

It tells about Chartkov - an honest hardworking artist, a man with talent and the ability to subtly feel nature. But with one drawback. That flaw is greed. The money, accidentally found in the frame of the portrait, deprived him of peace and suppressed his interest in real art.

“Portrait” is a story about the tragedy of an artist who knew the joy of inspired creativity and failed to defend his art in the face of the thirst to enrich himself financially. Gogol, under the guise of a fantastic event, shows the reader the true capital of Russia, as it is, all of St. Petersburg, striking with pictures of contradictions and contrasts. All the forces of evil are embodied in the hidden image of the city, it expresses all the tragedy of Russian reality. All its inhabitants are divided into businessmen and people who want to become them. “Our century has long acquired the boring physiognomy of a banker,” Gogol notes in the story. In general, the St. Petersburg cycle collected all the injustices that were happening in society, and the “Portrait” became the embodiment of the struggle against destructive greed.

To reveal the action of the story, Gogol chose an interesting technique. The work consists of two parts. The first tells about the tragic fate and death of the hero, the true cause of which is covered with a riddle for the reader. In the second, the author explains the mysterious circumstances and causes of Chartkov's death, without saying a word about him.

The theme of the work is expressed in the title - it is a mysterious portrait of a strange pawnbroker. “It was no longer a copy from nature, it was a strange painting that would light up the face of a dead man who had risen from the grave.”

The picture forced one artist to ruin his talent, another to go to the monastery. In order to show the reader the meaning of the story as transparently as possible, Gogol makes the portrait disappear at the very end. In the first edition of the story, it was not the picture that disappeared, but the image of the old man from it, but in the final version, the author wanted to make sure that the portrait was stolen again, so that a person would be found who would become another victim of the Asian pawnbroker.

The main idea of ​​the story is that true service to art requires moral stamina and courage from a person, an understanding of the high responsibility to society for talent. Neither one nor the other lacked Chartkov.

"Portrait" can be compared with "Mozart and Salieri" by Pushkin. Seduced by the devil, Chartkov “learned that terrible torment ... when a weak talent tries to speak out in excess of it and cannot speak out; that terrible torment that makes a person capable

for terrible atrocities. He was seized with a terrible envy, envy to the point of frenzy.” He recognized the torment that Pushkin's Salieri suffered. But Salieri killed the creator of music, retaining the ability to enjoy his works. And Chartkov destroys “everything that is best that art has produced”, seeking to destroy art itself. Salieri committed villainy and thereby ruined his talent. Chartkov ruined his talent and his soul, and therefore commits atrocities.

The story of N.V. Gogol "Portrait".

(Material for the teacher)

Problem-based learning is one of the ways to comprehend educational material. It brings up conceptual thinking, promotes the development of a systematic approach to phenomena.

The study of Gogol's story "Portrait" requires a problematic approach to activate the attention of students, problematic issues make you think about the significant issues of the work.

In the works of Gogol, which are studied by students of secondary vocational education, the topics outlined in previous cycles are deepened. The author and his heroes find themselves not under the sultry sun of a “delightful summer day” and not under the cover of a “divine” night, but in a city lit by a dim lantern. In the "Petersburg Tales" the author's focus on the problems of spiritual self-determination of a person, the problems of art, creativity is most clearly revealed; the writer fixed his eyes on the depths of the human soul, trying to see the essence behind the form, the inside behind the outside. Gogol warns the reader all the time: “Oh, do not believe this Nevsky Prospekt! Everything is a lie, everything is a dream, everything is not what it seems!” Through the prism of the fantastic, the writer examines the known in a different way, trying to see the anomaly in the familiar. “In Gogol's principles of correlation between the real and the fantastic lies the originality of the artistic system of St. Petersburg stories.”

In a world turned inside out, a person feels fragile and lonely, like a Tyutchev hero standing on the edge of the abyss:

And a man, like a homeless orphan,
Standing now and weak and naked
Face to face before the dark abyss...

The tragedy is manifested both in the “behavior” of the environment (... the bridge stretched and broke on its arch ...), and in the feelings of a person (to Piskarev “it seemed that some demon had crushed the whole world into many different pieces and all these pieces mixed together senselessly”). By shifting the proportions, the author shows how the apparent easily replaces the essential, the real becomes fantastic, how a thing easily replaces a person, how the border between good and evil is imperceptibly erased. At the same time, the characters experience an existential feeling of loneliness and longing. People in such critical moments need to learn to live and love with a constant "consciousness of the fragility and doom of everything."

The story "Portrait" is dedicated to the main and burning theme of N. V. Gogol - the theme of creativity, the fate of the artist, aesthetic and moral.

The idea of ​​the story dates back to 1831-1832. Three works - "Nevsky Prospekt", "Portrait" (1st edition), "Notes of a Madman" - were included in the collection "Arabesques", published in 1835. The author dreamed of creating a book about Petersburg artists, sculptors, and musicians. The first two stories echo a number of articles in Arabesques on art. The author so deeply and sincerely believed in its saving power that he hoped to influence the world order through it. “... I know that before I understood the meaning and purpose of art, I already felt with the intuition of my whole soul that it must be sacred... Creation, not destruction, is hidden in art. Art is the installation of harmony and order in the soul, and not embarrassment and disorder ... ”- says N. V. Gogol in a letter to V. A. Zhukovsky.

In the early 40s, the author returned to work on the story, since its first edition was not accepted by contemporaries. V. G. Belinsky noted: “Portrait” is an unsuccessful attempt by Mr. Gogol in a fantastic way. There is talent here. The first part of this story is impossible to read without enthusiasm...

But its second part is absolutely worthless: Gogol is not visible at all in it ... ”In Rome, the author subjected the story to a thorough revision. In the first edition, Gogol had an open dialogue with the reader, exposing all the "nerves" of the work. In the second edition, he deepened the aesthetic issues, more clearly expressed the aesthetic ideal. In the first part, the implementation problem

artistic gift, the influence of art on the human soul entered episodically. In the final version, this question is posed with all certainty: “Or is the slavish, literal imitation of nature already a misdemeanor and seems like a discordant cry?” Real art, according to Gogol, should be illuminated by the highest light and not obey the laws of the momentary, temporary. As a result of the edits, the plot was changed: the subtext was deepened, the exposition and ending were changed, and fantasy was veiled.

The story consists of two parts: The first deals with the tragic story of the artist Chartkov; the second tells the story of the transformation of man. Here N.V. Gogol used the method of “inverted composition” well-known in world literature (after all, the events of the second part chronologically precede the events of the first). Why did Chartkov's talent die? Why did the hero fail to preserve his talent, while the author of the mysterious portrait managed to overcome the painter of “discordant life” in himself? What is the meaning of composition? answers to these and other questions will help young readers unravel the many mysteries of Gogol's text. The lessons will talk about the secret of creativity, about the mystery of the human spirit, about possible ways to comprehend the nature of art, about how important it is for a person not to betray himself, not to betray his talent and believe in his vocation. Problem analysis will help students overcome many "discordances" in the perception of the text.

The beginning of the story is promising: before us is a young, talented artist, “prophesying a lot: flashes and moments of his brush responded with observation, content, a strong impulse to get closer to nature ...”. He knows how to distinguish genuine art from a fake, to see the “mask” behind the so-called face. So, in the paintings exhibited at the Shchukin yard, first of all, not only the mediocrity of their authors, but also distorted reality is striking: “He stopped in front of the shop and at first inwardly laughed at these ugly paintings. Here one could see simply stupidity, powerless, decrepit mediocrity, which spontaneously stood in the ranks of the arts ... A Flemish peasant with a pipe and a broken arm, looking more like an Indian rooster than a man. Examining the portrait painting with the hero, the author sadly notes the lack of light, beauty and harmony of the inner life in the depicted. Very little time will pass, and on the canvases of Chartkov they will play, they will fill with bright, flashy colors; the pretty head of Psyche will be replaced by the languid little face of Lisa, on which “one can find heavy traces of indifferent diligence in various arts.”

Each new customer will have “claims for miscellaneous”. They will try to hide the traces of the deformed reality behind the mask of Mars, Byron, the appearance of Corinne, Ondine, Aspasia, Chartkov with “great willingness to agree to everything and add enough grace to everyone ... He will marvel at the wonderful speed and glibness of his brush ... ”In the meantime, he stands “for some time motionless”, as if spellbound, in front of one portrait, in large, once magnificent frames ...”

Compare editions:

II edition:

“He was an old man with a bronze-colored face, high cheekbones, stunted; the features of the face seemed to be seized in a moment of convulsive movement and did not respond to the northern force. The fiery noon was imprinted in them. He was draped in a wide Asian costume. No matter how damaged and dusty the portrait was, but when he managed to clean the dust from his face, he saw traces of the work of a high artist ... Unusual of all were the eyes: it seemed that the artist used all the power of the brush and all his diligent care. They just looked, looked even from the portrait itself, as if destroying its harmony with their strange liveliness.

I edition:

“...He began to impatiently rub his hand and soon saw a portrait in which a master brush was clearly visible, although the colors seemed somewhat cloudy and blackened. It was an old man with a kind of restless and spiteful expression on his face; there was a smile on his lips, sharp, caustic, and at the same time some kind of fear; the blush of illness was thinly spread over the face, distorted by wrinkles; his eyes were large, black, dull; but at the same time there was a strange vivacity in them. This portrait seemed to represent

some miser who spent his life over a chest, or one of those unfortunate people who are tormented by the happiness of others all their lives ... Some kind of incompleteness was visible in the whole portrait ... ”

In the first edition, the portrait of the usurer clearly betrays a demonic character in him. In the second edition, Gogol veiled, hid in the subtext the entire infernal essence of the usurer, leaving the reader in an aura of mystery.

Examining the mysterious portrait at home, Chartkov experienced two opposite feelings at the same time: on the one hand, he was very frightened, on the other, some kind of longing seized him. The young man tried to fall asleep, thinking about “poverty, about the miserable fate of the artist, about the thorny path ahead of him in this world,” but the portrait haunted him: something attracted, beckoned behind the screen. The gold that shone in the hands of the usurer became a symbol of temptation, the spiritual test of the hero. In Petersburg Tales, dreams are endowed with a special function of testing the soul. “The hero-dreamer appears as a kind of mediator between this and that world; the wandering soul of the hero reveals the state of crisis he is experiencing, which is expressed in the loss of orientation, the inability to answer the questions “where” and “when”.

The transitions from one dream to another metaphorically denote the movement of the hero into the abyss of chaos. This episode is reminiscent in theme of the scene “Vakula at Patsyuk” from the story “The Night Before Christmas”. The dumpling, which magically fell into the blacksmith's mouth into the "hungry kutya", was a kind of "contract" with evil spirits. However, the piety of Vakula did not allow him to commit a sin. Chartkov did not have an inner core, just as many people living in a breaking world did not have it. “A beautiful life”, festive festivities with ladies, delicious dinners - this was the dream of a secretly poor artist in a small room on Vasilyevsky Island. Convulsively grasping the bundle, Chartkov looked to see if the old man would notice...”. This is how “the signing of a pact with the devil” happened. This topic is not new in literature: it worried Goethe, Byron. Pushkin. Lermontov. But Pushkin's "Scene from Faust" developed the idea that "human nature still retains reverence for concepts sacred to the human race." Love is one of those concepts. When Mephistopheles rips out the root of love from the hero's soul, he has no choice but to issue an order: "... drown everything." Life loses all meaning when love turns into an illusion (see the analysis of “Scenes from Faust” in the book Marantsman V. G. On the way to Pushkin. - M., 1999).

There is no dialogue between the characters in Gogol's story. Its participants (the artist and the usurer) are in "different spatio-temporal and historical planes."

At the same time, the dialogue formula is preserved in the story. The characters communicate with the help of gestures, glances, and a bundle of coins is the result of this meeting.

Thus, receiving money is the first “beautiful moment” that “transformed” Chartkov. He settled down perfectly, made a career for himself, achieved success with the capital's nobility. Money introduced him to an atmosphere where "the contemptible cold of trade and insignificance" reigns.

Creative tensions and impulses were replaced by negligence, indifference

to your own creativity. “This man, who digs for several months over the picture, for me, is a worker, not an artist. Genius creates boldly, quickly...” – this is how Chartkov now argues. How not to recall Pushkin's lines here:

The service of the Muses does not tolerate fuss,
Beautiful must be majestic...

Gogol lexically emphasizes the story of the painter's spiritual death.

“Already he began to reach the pores of the degree of mind and years ... Already in newspapers and magazines I read adjectives: “our venerable Andrey Petrovich”,

"our honored Andrey Petrovich"... Already began to offer him places of honor in the service. In all these rows, two opposite planes are found: one conveys promotion, external ascent, and the other plane (internal) reveals the degradation of the artist’s personality (“ Already he began to believe that everything in the world is simple, there is no inspiration from above ...”), who exchanged his talent for simple trifles.

For his quick success, the hero had to pay with talent and soul.

Seeing the “divine” work of art brought from Italy, Chartkov had a moment of enlightenment, youth returned to him, “as if the extinguished sparks of talent flared up again.” Here the hero felt the second “beautiful moment”, which for some time restored the artist’s interrupted connection with the world of people, with the world of art. At that moment, he realized that real talent cannot be bought for any money. Again, the Faustian motif of the “beautiful moment” illuminated the hero’s life for a while, marked a turning point in his views and character: from blindness to insight, from delusion to truth. However, the restoration of his personality proved impossible. Chartkov exhausted himself. When he looked at the picture, "pure, immaculate, beautiful as a bride, stood in front of him the work of the artist." He wanted to make comments, but “the speech died on his lips, tears and sobs escaped discordantly in response, and he ran out of the hall like a madman.” The hero became a part of this “disorderly” life, forgetting about his high destiny. Chartkorvym, like Pushkin's Faust, was seized by a passion for destruction, but the artist's motives for such an act were different. The last days of his life were terrible: he ruthlessly destroyed the best paintings, masterpieces of world art. Evil became indestructible for Chartkov because he was unable to endure and hope. He did not have enough peace of mind, wise humility to overcome spiritual confusion.

The second part of the story tells about the fate of the author of this mysterious portrait, who managed to overcome the painter of a discordant life in himself. The artist, like the young Chartkov, “was looking for that degree of skill, that creative state that allows him to capture and convey the deep essence of a living human face.” The master, having heard the request of the usurer to paint a portrait, “the next day, grabbing a palette and brushes, was in his house ... “Damn it, how well his face is now lit up! he said to himself and began to write greedily, as if fearing that the happy illumination would somehow disappear. Chartkov and the Bogomaz artist are united by one image - a usurer. One immortalized him, and the other gave him a second life, "revived". Even ancient people endowed a portrait image with a magical function (the ability of a portrait to “revive” and “revive” what is depicted on it.)

A person’s hope for “overcoming” death and posthumous existence in a portrait image is associated with a portrait image (usurer to the artist: “I may die soon, I have no children; but I don’t want to die completely, I want to live”). The portrait turned out to be “perfect”, as if a living person was looking from the canvas. The author of the portrait, like Chartkov, strove for an accurate depiction, for the mastery of nature. The owner of the apartment says about Chartkov: “Here he draws a room ... he painted it with all the rubbish and squabbles.” All those present in the shop were struck by the usurer's eyes, "live" eyes that pierce the soul through and through. Imitation of nature, apparently necessary for art, but clearly not enough action. As V. A. Favorsky notes, “living” in art is not where completely living heads look from the portrait, making you shudder, but where the artist manages to create an integral space - a world that in its integrity turns out to be independent, self-existing, but that means already alive to a very large extent.” The second part of the story reveals the history of overcoming the "givenness" of art, the path of knowledge and overcoming the "impulses of suffering". Only life in the monastery, fasting and prayer restored the harmony of the spirit of the portrait painter. The picture, created by the artist after his tonsure and hermitage, struck by the "extraordinary holiness of the figures." “The feeling of divine humility and meekness in the face of the Most Pure Mother ... the holy, inexpressible silence embracing the whole picture - all this appeared in such a consonant strength and power of beauty that the impression was magical.”

The story "Portrait" presents the ideal of the artist - the author of a "magnificent" picture. Gogol in a few phrases, but freely and with inspiration, pronounces his position, enjoys the greatness of the spirit of the master. In this picture, "pure, immaculate, beautiful as a bride," that freedom of the artist's creativity, which the writer dreamed of, had an effect. The life of the artist was far from the "free world". “He didn’t care if they talked about his character, about his inability to deal with people, about non-observance of secular decency ... He neglected everything, gave everything to art.” As noted in the research literature, Gogol's friend A.A. became the prototype of a young talented artist. Ivanov. “In the guise of Ivanov, in his creative self-denial, Gogol saw the image of an ideal artist, which he wrote about in Selected Places ...”. The writer met Ivanov in Rome in 1838 with the assistance of V. A. Zhukovsky, when he was working on his main work, The Appearance of the Messiah. The acquaintance grew into a friendship that did not stop until the death of the writer. Gogol highly appreciated the talent of the painter, his inherent inquisitive, philosophical mindset. Ivanov gave all the passion of his heart to work on the picture. Around 1833, Ivanov creates sketches of the future creation. The picture unfolds a plot taken from the first chapter of the Gospel of John. Before us is a hilly area of ​​the earth's surface, closer to the audience, the soil rises slightly, goes deeper, then descends, again rises steeply as a hill and ends in a valley, behind which a string of mountains stretches. With this movement, the artist expanded the space of the picture: each character becomes visible. In the foreground, slightly shifted to the left, under a centuries-old tree, there is a group of apostles, headed by John the Baptist. This group is opposed by a crowd descending from the hill, led by the Pharisees. Between these poles is a string of people who are trying to understand what is happening, listening to what John tells them. The entire apostolic group is directed towards Christ, the group of Pharisees and scribes descending from the hill are directed from Christ. They did not accept the teaching of the Lord, but they came to hear Him. Each character chooses his own path: either getting rid of sins, or the opportunity to live as before. “Everyone will get it according to his faith”, according to his self-perception in a changing world. some are in confusion, doubt; the slave yearns for freedom; the Pharisees live in the past; in the faces of the “trembling” one feels the awakening of the consciousness of one’s own spiritual disorder. Some are still only listening to the calm, even step of Christ. He brings with him a covenant of calm and peaceful harmony. In the sketches there is a figure that has received the name of the “nearest” to Christ. This is a man with disheveled hair, in a lingonberry-yellow mantle, with a thin face turned in profile. The whole figure gives the impression of a painful experience of his sinfulness. In the picture, besides him, there is not a single person who would be the bearer of such deeply hopeless dramatic features. In sketch sketches, it is easy to detect Gogol's characteristic facial features in this character. The introduction of the writer into the picture of the Messiah in the early period of his acquaintance with Ivanov could not have happened simply with his consent. but

and with his active support. It was during this period that Gogol was working on the second edition of the Portrait, and the repentant attitude was very much in line with this process.

The connection between the Scene from Faust” by A. S. Pushkin and “Portrait” by N. V. Gogol is based on the commonality of some aspects of the worldview of the two geniuses. If love is destroyed in a person, it is not found

“divine support”, the moral nature is destroyed, then the whole world may be on the verge of spiritual and physical death. When students see how Gogol, relying on literary traditions, reveals a new thought, creates a new plot, they are convinced that the events that the writer comprehended and remained in the memory of mankind provide an incentive for further creative searches.

The main methodological technique, with the help of which, in our opinion, the conceptual mastering of the story by students will take place, bearing in mind the fact that scheduling is allotted for studying Gogol's story "Portrait" 2 hours, is a seminar.

1. During independent extracurricular work, students should get acquainted with the content, the history of the creation of the story, with the reviews of contemporaries about the work, memories of Gogol during this period, get acquainted with articles, excerpts and letters from the author himself about the fate of the artist and the purpose of art.

In order to understand the content of the story, the following questions can be asked:

1. What alarmed you about Gogol's story "Portrait"?
2. How does Gogol feel about aristocrats, merchants, commoners?
3. What is the appearance of Chartkov in his closet on Vasilyevsky Island and in the apartments on Nevsky Prospekt?
4. Imagine Chartkov at the moment when he finishes painting Psyche and when he destroys the canvases of talented artists.
5. What would you name the first and second parts of the story? Is V. G. Belinsky right when he says that the second part is “an addition that is absolutely worthless”?
6. What is the meaning of the epithet and comparison: “There were chervonets in it (the package), all new, hot as fire”?
7. What destroys and what saves the artist's talent?

Lesson-seminar on the topic: “The ideological plan of the story by N.V. Gogol "Portrait".

Target: get acquainted with the story of N.V. Gogol “Portrait”; determine its content.

Equipment: Portrait of N.V. Gogol, textbooks, notebooks.

Epigraph to the lesson:“...Talent is the most precious gift of God - do not destroy it...”

Methodical methods: conversation on the content of the text of the story, student reports, answers to problematic questions.

Lesson progress

1. Introductory word of the teacher.

Teacher: Today we will talk about the St. Petersburg period of N.V. Gogol's work. In the first half of 1835, Gogol published the collection Arabesques, which included three stories: Nevsky Prospekt, Portrait, and Notes of a Madman. With St. Petersburg stories, later supplemented by the story “The Nose” and the story “The Overcoat”, Gogol completed a holistic picture of Russian life, an essential link of which was also the comedy “The Inspector General” written in these years.

The main theme of the St. Petersburg stories is the deceitfulness of the outward brilliance of metropolitan life, its imaginary splendor, behind which lies base and vulgar prose. In addition, Gogol is concerned about the theme of creativity and the artist. He is convinced that talent is God's gift, it is given in order to "comprehend the high secret of creation." The story "Portrait" is devoted to this theme.

So, the theme of our lesson: “The ideological idea of ​​the novel by N. V. Gogol “Portrait””.

Now we will listen to the students who prepared the reports: “The Petersburg period of N.V. Gogol’s creativity” and “The history of the creation of the story“ Portrait ””.

2. We listen to the reports of pre-prepared students.

3. Analysis of the story on questions provided to students in advance:

Questions for the analysis of the story.

Part I

1. What is Chartkov dissatisfied with, looking at the paintings in the shop in Shchukin's yard?
2. Why did Chartkov buy the old man's portrait for the last two kopecks?
3. What is the significance of the landscape in the episode of Chartkov's return home?
4. Why is Chartkov's room described in such detail?
5. Did the professor have reason to fear that Chartkov would become a fashionable painter?
6. Why does the purchased portrait disturb Chartkov and does not seem to him a work of high art?
7. What properties of Chartkov speak about the artist's talent?
8. Is Chartkov right when he thinks that the portrait has a “secret connection with his fate”?
9. What opportunities does the unexpectedly discovered treasure give Chartkov, and how does he use it?
10. Why does wealth arouse in Chartkow the desire for fame?
11. Why do we recognize the name and patronymic of Chartkov from a newspaper article?
12. What is Gogol laughing at, conveying the chatter of a lady commissioning a portrait of her daughter?
13. Why did the work on the portrait “lure” Chartkov? What and why is false in the portrait of an aristocratic girl?
14. Why in the portraits that Chartkov paints, does resemblance give way to good looks?
15. Compare the appearance of Chartkov and the furnishings of his house on Vasilyevsky Island and on Nevsky Prospekt. How has he himself and his attitude towards art and great artists changed?
16. Why did “Gold become... a passion, an ideal, a fear, a goal” by Chartkov?
17. What is the difference between a Russian artist who improved in Italy and Chartkov? What do you think about which artist and what painting are we talking about?
18. Why does the shock of a perfect painting in Chartkovo turn into “envy and rage”, why does he destroy talented works of art?
19. Why did Chartkov fall into “hopeless madness” and die?

Part 2.

1. Why does Gogol compare the auction to a funeral procession?
2. Why are usurers necessary for the “sediment of mankind” who settled in Kolomna, and why is insensibility the main property of a usurer?
3. How strange is the usurer from whom the portrait was painted?
4. What changes are taking place in people who associate themselves with the moneylender?
5. Why does a terrible usurer order a portrait from an artist and why does he agree to paint it?
6. What misfortunes did the portrait of the usurer bring to the artist, and how did he cleanse his soul of filth?
7. What do you think is the most important advice from a father to his son? What is the connection between these councils and the Sermon on the Mount of Christ?
8. What is the meaning of art and why “talent ... should be the purest of all souls”? What is the difference between Gogol's thought and the words of Pushkin's Mozart: "Genius and villainy are two incompatible things"?

4. Analysis of the content of the story, using problematic questions.

- Here we have repeated the content of the story, and now let's pay attention to the fact from the life of Gogol:

it was in 1835 that Gogol collected articles on art (“Painting, Sculpture and Music”, “A Few Words about Pushkin”, “On the Architecture of the Present Time”), lectures and articles on history and reflections on historical figures and published them together with the story “ Portrait". This indicates that Gogol is concerned about the issues of creativity and the place of the artist in society.

Gogol counts on the understanding of readers and critics, but what was the writer’s disappointment when the leading critic of the 30s and 40s V. G. Belinsky disapproved of the story “Portrait”: “The portrait is an unsuccessful attempt by Mr. Gogol in a fantastic way. Here his talent falls, but even in the fall he remains a talent. The first part of this story is impossible to read without enthusiasm; even, in fact, there is something terrible, fatal, fantastic in this mysterious portrait, there is some kind of invincible charm that makes you forcefully look at it, although you are afraid of it. Add to this a multitude of fantastic pictures and essays in the style of Mr. Gogol; remember the quarter warden, talking about painting; then this mother, who brought her daughter to Chertkovo to take a portrait of her, and who scolds balls and admires nature - and you will not deny the dignity of this story. But the second part of it is worth absolutely nothing; Mr. Gogol is not visible in it. This is an obvious attachment, in which it was not the mind that worked, but the fantasy did not take any part.

Please note: Belinsky calls the second part of the story “an attachment in which the mind worked, and fantasy did not take any part” ...

- A trained student talks about the further fate of Gogol and his story "Portrait":

Having left Russia after the scandal connected with the premiere of The Inspector General, Gogol finds refuge in Italy. He lives in Rome. But nothing pleases the writer's heart: neither warm weather, nor well-organized life, nor local beauties... Gogol thinks about Russia. Here, in Rome, he meets artists, in particular, the artist Ivanov, who is working on the painting “The Appearance of Christ to the People”.

Gogol sees how the artist works selflessly, making many sketches from nature, endlessly changing the poses of the heroes of his picture, and the color that illuminates them and nature. He is haunted by the criticism of V. G. Belinsky. And he decides to remake the story "Portrait". By 1841 this work was completed. Significant changes have appeared: the surname of the protagonist has changed (it used to be Chertkov, which emphasized his connection with evil spirits; Gogol excluded certain mystical scenes, quite realistic characters appeared: Nikita, the professor, the owner of the house, the quarter, ladies-customers. In the first edition, the appearance the usurer in the finale of the story disappeared from the canvas, and in the second edition the portrait disappears, which went around the world to sow misfortunes.

Teacher: What made Gogol take up his pen again and remake the story?

Student: Gogol was not satisfied with the criticism of his work, since he attached great importance to the idea of ​​the story: he was interested in the problem of true art and the place of the artist in the modern world; a real artist should not think about profit, about money, as this is detrimental to real art).

Teacher: How is it shown in the story?

Student: Chartkov takes the path of lies and betrayal in relation to art: initially, this manifests itself in the fact that he lied, giving the girl the image of Psyche. Chartkov is pleased: he received a significant amount, then the author shows Chartkov’s further “fall”: “whoever wanted Mars, he thrust Mars in his face; who aimed at Byron, he gave him Byron's position and turn.

Teacher: How was Chartkov punished?

Student: he dies in terrible agony, envy and malice destroyed his soul, talent: “He was seized by terrible envy, envy to the point of rage ... He began to buy up all the best that only art produced. Having bought a painting at a high price. he carefully brought it to his room and, with the fury of a tiger, rushed at it, tore it, tore it, cut it into pieces and trampled it underfoot, accompanying it with laughter of pleasure ... ”

Teacher: Affected by the microbe of profit and envy, the protagonist of the story dies in terrible agony, but the story does not end there. Why do you think Gogol writes the second part, what has he not yet said? After all, it would seem that the idea is expressed very clearly and clearly: a true artist should not sell his soul to the devil, who has talent, he should serve the beautiful on earth. What should the reader be convinced of by the proximity of the first and second parts?

Student: The neighborhood of the first and second parts in Gogol's "Portrait" is intended to convince the reader that evil can take possession of any person, regardless of his moral nature. An artist who has touched evil, painted the usurer's eyes, which "looked demonically crushing", can no longer paint good, his brush is driven by "an impure feeling", and in the picture intended for the temple, "there is no holiness in the faces."

Teacher: Quite right, the second part of the story is of great importance for the ideological content of the story. Criticism of Belinsky made the great writer think about many things. Life circumstances developed in such a way that in Italy he met a true artist (Ivanov), saw how selflessly he was working on a picture on a divine theme - all these facts forced Gogol to take up his pen again. In the second part, he tells about the fate of the artist, who, having come into contact with evil, goes through the path of internal purification: time by the life-giving power of prayer...”. Only after that did he allow himself to take up the pen again, and then pictures full of holiness began to come out from under his brush: “... the holy higher power led your brush and the blessing of heaven rested on your work,” the rector tells him.

Only after that did he get the right to give instructions to his artist son, who is going to go to Italy: passion, breathing earthly lust, but quiet heavenly passion: without it, a person has no power to rise from the earth and cannot give wonderful sounds of calm. For in order to calm and reconcile all, a lofty work of art descends into the world.”

Conclusions: So, in today's lesson, we got acquainted with the story of N. V. Gogol "Portrait",

found out what the ideological intent of the author is. “Talent is the most precious gift of God - do not destroy it,” the old artist teaches his son, this is the main idea of ​​​​the work. In conclusion, I would like to draw your attention to the ending of the story in order to link it with your homework.

Let us return to the finale of the story, we know that Gogol, having remade the end of the story, takes away the hope of eradicating evil: the portrait that brought so much evil to people disappears without a trace, which means that evil has not been destroyed, it continues to roam the world.

6. Homework

Write an essay on the topic: “Does the second part of the “Portrait” refute or confirm the idea of ​​the omnipotence of evil?”

Literature

1. Bibliography Gogol NV Sobr. op. : in 9 tons / comp. preparation text and commentary by V. A. Voropaev and V. V. Vinogradov. - M .: Russian book, 1994.
2. Belinsky V. G. From articles and letters.// Gogol in the memoirs of his contemporaries. - M. Without m. ed., 1952.
3. Khrapchenko M.V. Nikolay Gogol. literary path. greatness of the writer. - M., 1984.
4. Mashkovtsev N. G. Gogol in the circle of artists. – M.: Art, 1955.
5. Marantsman V. G. On the way to Pushkin. - M., 1999.

"Portrait" of Gogol N.V.

Gogol wrote the story "Portrait" in 1835; in 1842 he partly reworked it. Such a work - revised, but retaining the old plot and stylistic basis - is usually called an editorial in the science of literature. Opening modern reprints of Gogol's prose, we usually read the second edition of the Portrait, that is, the 1842 version; and we will analyze it.

So, who is the hero of this story? Artist Chartkov? Demonic pawnbroker? Or, perhaps, the hero here is the fantastic city of Petersburg itself, in which the action takes place? Let's try to figure it out.

Judging by the external outline of events, according to the plot of the work, the artist Andrey Petrovich Chartkov, his fate, his downfall, is undoubtedly in the center of the story. The very name of the hero hints in advance that he is in the power of evil spells, fraught with devilry. And this is by no means contradicted by the fact that at the beginning of the story Chartkov is depicted with undisguised authorial sympathy, his gift is undoubted, his sincerity is obvious.

Moreover, remember exactly how Evil, which the Usurer personifies, first invades Chartkov's life? The artist, for the last two kopecks, buys an old portrait “in large, once magnificent frames” in an art shop in Shchukin’s yard; the portrait depicts "an old man with a bronze-colored face, cheeky, stunted", but endowed with "not northern strength." So, the artist gives the money needed for subsistence for a work of art. He does nothing wrong; he is faithful to art; his previous life is blameless and deeply moral. Ho from the second part of the story, we learn that all the owners of the ill-fated painting became its victims. So, having bought it, the artist is doomed to share their fate. Chartkov's only "guilt" lies only in the fact that he could not resist the devilish obsession, which approached him at a dangerous distance and sucked him in like a quagmire. Waking up in the morning after a repeated nightmare (an old usurer comes out of the portrait frames and counts his chervonets), Chartkov discovers a bundle with 1,000 chervonets. His soul seems to split in two: a true artist, who dreams of three years of calm and selfless work, and a twenty-year-old youth who loves to gossip and is prone to fashionable brilliance of colors are arguing in him. Worldly passion wins; the artist in him begins to die.

This is what usually happens in Gogol's picture of the world: a heavenly calling seems to attract demonic forces to itself; The power of gold, which opposes the power of creativity, encroaches on the human soul, and in order to resist this power, one must have a special strength and a special, ascetic personality. Otherwise, evil will win; an artist who succumbs to everyday temptation will not only ruin his talent, but will also turn into a servant of dark forces. And that means - the enemy of art.

Chartkov's transition to a new quality is depicted as a betrayal, as a betrayal, a religious fall. Having moved to luxurious apartments on Nevsky Prospekt, he paints the first “fashionable” portrait in his life. After several sessions, moving further and further away from fidelity to the original, he transfers the embellished features of the young Lise, who has already known a passion for balls, to his old sketch. This sketch depicted the mythological heroine Psyche; Translated into Russian, Psyche means Soul. Thus, it turns out that the artist remakes and sells his Soul for the sake of success and money; he, as it were, puts it under a false image. Moreover, the name of his first model, Lise, reminds the reader of Karamzin's "Poor Liza". And, as you well know, Karamzin's Liza served in Russian literature as a symbol of perishing naturalness.

Gradually, Chartkov becomes one of the "moving stone coffins with a dead man instead of a heart." He condemns Michelangelo, and here Gogol again uses the same device of a significant name. After all, Chartkov denies the work of the artist, in whose name the image of a shining angel is "encrypted". And the reader is gradually imbued with the idea that Chartkov himself has turned into a fallen angel. Not without reason, after meeting with a former classmate at the Academy, who chose the opposite path in life and art, spent many years in Italy, the birthplace of European painting, and created a great final picture, Chartkov is desperately trying to create a portrait of the Fallen Angel. That is, a portrait of his soul, the fallen Psyche. But even the technique was lost to him - having become the enemy of harmony, he simply forgot how to draw ...

But his own face becomes a portrait, an artistic image of his fall, evidence of the loss of his soul. "Blame on the world" sounds in the features of his face; from a creator endowed with a heavenly gift, he turns into a satanic destroyer of masterpieces: Chartkov spends all the gold received as if in exchange for the sold talent on buying up the greatest creations of a European genius - and destroys them, as he destroyed and disfigured himself ...

Does this mean that evil is omnipotent? That it is impossible to resist him, since the world is arranged in such a way that the purest and brightest, that is, art, attracts, draws to itself the darkest, the most evil? No, it doesn't. Although the world, as Gogol depicts it, is really distorted and arranged unfairly; having bought a terrible picture, Chartkov must inevitably go astray. Evil is indelible. However, it is not omnipotent. It is impossible to escape the temptation, but the finale, the denouement of the drama may be completely different; here Gogol's heroes are free in their choice. The story about the fate of Chartkov is shaded by the story of the artist who created a portrait of the Usurer during the time of Catherine the Great; it is told in the second part by the portrait painter's son. He lived in the same place where Chartkov later lived - on the outskirts of St. Petersburg; both knew what envy was (Chartkov - to a fellow student at the Academy, a portrait painter - to his own student, who received an order to paint a rich church); both stumbled, fell into dependence on the devil's spell. But the portrait painter finds the only possible way out of the situation, the only reliable shelter from evil - a monastery. Here he creates the painting "The Nativity of Jesus". The personal fate of the portrait painter, his soul saved. Despite the fact that evil as such cannot be defeated: at the end of the story, everyone notices that the mysterious Portrait has disappeared and, therefore, the temptation embodied in it will continue its terrible procession around the world.

Thus, judging by the external outline of events, Chartkov turns out to be the main character of the story. But if we talk about the role that the characters play in building the story as a whole, then the center of the author's attention is undoubtedly the Usurer. The fabulously wealthy lender lived in the era of Catherine the Great, that is, long before the birth of Chartkov; his reviving image, the diabolical Portrait, retains its monstrous power even after the death of the painter.

Who is this usurer? No one knows where the "Asian" with an incomprehensibly terrible complexion came from; it is not known exactly whether he was Indian, Greek or Persian. The money that he borrowed, it would seem, on favorable terms, had the ability to rise to exorbitant interest; in addition, the Usurer offered clients some secret conditions, from which the hair of the debtors "rose on end." Anyone who borrowed from him, even for good purposes, ended badly.

An attentive reader of Gogol knows that the theme of the Antichrist constantly resounds in his works. Sometimes seriously and mystically, as in the early stories, especially in The Terrible Vengeance, sometimes mockingly, as in Dead Souls. Gogol's ideas about the Antichrist are akin to some popular beliefs: this enemy of Christ cannot come into the world until the end of time, when the laws of nature created by God finally weaken. But for the time being, the Antichrist can incarnate, as it were, in part, in individual people, trying his hand and preparing for the last battle for earthly history. Here the Usurer is such a "trial" incarnation of the Antichrist. Not without reason, in the first edition of the story "Portrait", the Usurer bore the name of Petromikhali: Peter the Great called himself Peter Mikhailov, whom popular beliefs identified with the Antichrist ... He is not yet omnipotent, and therefore seeks to extend his earthly days and continue his menial work after death - from with great art.

Three themes are inextricably linked with the image of the Usurer, which were of particular concern to Gogol while working on the cycle of "Petersburg Tales": the incomprehensible, secret power of gold over the human soul; art, which is intended to be a "hint of the divine", but can also become a tool of evil; the desire of diabolical forces at the cost of gold to subjugate art. But all these themes condense into one key image, rising both from the pages of the Portrait and from the pages of other St. Petersburg stories. This is the image of a double, majestic and dangerous, rich and poor, deceptive and beautiful city of St. Petersburg. And from the point of view of the idea of ​​the "Petersburg stories", from the point of view of the cycle as an artistic whole, Petersburg itself should be considered the main character of the "Portrait".

Only here, in this fantastic city, on the gloomy outskirts of Kolomna, can the fabulous luxury of the Usurer bloom in a false color; only here can the transition from the conscientious poverty of creativity into the dead luxury of the salon, the transfer from Vasilievsky Island to Nevsky Prospekt, take place instantly; only here demonic portraits come to life at night, real chervonets fall out from behind the frame, and dangerous portraits suddenly disappear from the auction... Petersburg in the image of Gogol is similar to the negative of another great and at the same time bright city, Rome; it is from there, from the Italian South to the cold and gloomy North, that Chartkov's former classmate returns with his final painting; just before his son's departure to Italy, the gray-haired, "almost divine old man", the author of the ill-fated Portrait, bequeathed to find the painting and "destroy" it. And with it - and evil.

Introduction

Talent is the most precious gift of God - do not destroy it ... The true purpose of talent is to serve good. N.V. Gogol

The art of painting and the fate of the artist attracted the attention of N.V. Gogol throughout his entire work, they become the subject of reflection in his works. Interest in the topic was caused, on the one hand, by the writer's passion for drawing, and on the other hand, by his personal acquaintance and friendship with modern Russian painters.

Gogol's view of painting and the fate of the artist is presented in the writer's letters, in the articles of the 1830s - 1840s: "Sculpture, Painting and Music" (1831), "The Last Day of Pompeii" (1834) and "The Historical Painter Ivanov" (1846), and also in the stories "Nevsky Prospekt" (1835), "Portrait" (1835) and "Portrait" (1842 - the second edition of the story), in which the artist becomes the main character. The complex of plot motifs of these stories includes the history of the masterpiece, the hero’s meeting with the mysterious canvas, the revival of the portrait, finding inspiration, conspiracy with evil spirits, etc. Among them, the motif of the artist’s temptation, which became the key to Gogol’s story “Portrait”, stands out. Temptation in this story appears as a special state of a creative person who, under the influence of external forces, changes his aesthetic guidelines. The test to which the artist's talent is subjected arises from the passion for external comfort, fame, wealth.

The object of this study is the story of N.V. Gogol's "Portrait", the subject is the motive of temptation in the story "Portrait".

The purpose of the work is to analyze the plot and composition of the story "Portrait". To achieve this goal, it is necessary to perform the following tasks:

The study of the history of writing the story "Portrait",

The study of the works of literary critics on this issue,

The study of the plot and compositional features of the work,

Analysis of the works that served as the source of the story.

The story "Portrait" in the studies of Russian literary critics

The history of the creation of the story "Portrait" by N.V. Gogol

The story of N.V. Gogol's "Portrait" was first published in the collection "Arabesques" in 1835. After the success of Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka, N.V. Gogol collected articles on art (“Painting, Sculpture and Music”, “A Few Words about Pushkin”, “On the Architecture of the Present Time”), lectures and articles on history and reflections on historical figures and published them together with the story “Portrait”, writing in the preface: “I confess that I might not have admitted some plays to this collection at all if I had published it a year earlier, when I was more strict with my old works. But, instead of sternly judging the past, it is much better to be inexorable to your current pursuits. To destroy what we have written before seems to be as unfair as to forget the bygone days of your youth. Moreover, if an essay contains two or three truths that have not yet been said, then the author has no right to hide it from the reader, and for two or three correct thoughts one can forgive the imperfection of the whole.

Probably, Gogol's mentoring tone, his desire to teach and careful attention to his own personality are already captured in the preface. However, the success of the “Queen of Spades” by A.S. Pushkin, perhaps, prompted Gogol to tell a story about a man who was ruined by a thirst for gold. After all, the "Portrait" was written precisely in 1834, when Pushkin's stories were widely discussed. Gogol considers the life of a contemporary artist against the backdrop of history and art. This feature of the story "Portrait" is very important in order to understand how the writer shares the vanity and eternity, how he seeks the true meaning of human life and determines the true meaning and purpose of art.

After the release of "Arabesques" one of the most significant critics of that time, 30-40s of the nineteenth century, V.G. Belinsky disapproved of the story "Portrait": "The portrait is an unsuccessful attempt by Mr. Gogol in a fantastic way. Here his talent falls, but even in the fall he remains a talent. The first part of this story is impossible to read without enthusiasm; even, in fact, there is something terrible, fatal, fantastic in this mysterious portrait, there is some kind of invincible charm that makes you forcefully look at it, although you are afraid of it. Add to this a multitude of humorous pictures and essays in the style of Mr. Gogol; remember the quarter warden, talking about painting; then this mother, who brought her daughter to Chertkovo in order to take a portrait of her, and who scolds balls and admires nature - and you will not deny the dignity of this story. But the second part of it is absolutely worthless; Mr. Gogol is not at all visible in it. This is an obvious attachment in which the mind worked, and fantasy did not take any part. [V.G. Belinsky. A look at Russian literature. M., Sovremennik, 1988].

After the scandal connected with the premiere of The Inspector General, Gogol leaves Russia for Italy. He lives in Rome, surrounded by great works of art from different times and contemporary Russian artists who, having graduated from the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts with a medal, lived and worked here. In the circle of Russian artists, Gogol was especially attracted by Alexander Ivanov, who painted the painting "The Appearance of Christ to the People."

Criticism of V.G. Belinsky and the painstaking work of A. Ivanov prompted Gogol to reconsider his attitude to the story "Portrait" and remake it. By 1841, work on correcting the story was completed. The surname of the protagonist has changed: earlier his name was Chertkov, which too openly emphasized the connection with evil spirits. Gogol excluded scenes of mystical, inexplicable appearances of the portrait and its customers from the story. The syllable of the story became clearer, the characteristics of the minor characters were expanded and described in more detail: Nikita, the professor, the owner of the house, the quarter, ladies who ordered the portraits. In the first edition, the appearance of the usurer at the end of the story disappeared from the canvas. In the second edition, the portrait disappears, which again went to wander the world.

Nikolai Vasilyevich liked to dream up in his stories, to create a mystical plot, as can be seen from his famous stories “Viy”, “Evenings on a farm near Dikanka”. But if here the reader has to plunge into the fictional world of a folklore character, then Gogol's "Portrait" shows that the author wanted to transfer fantasy to social phenomena. In this, Nikolai Vasilyevich reminds many foreign writers, in whom the "supernatural" captures the world. In our case, money is evil.

Internal confrontation between wealth and talent

At the beginning of the story, a young, promising artist Chartkov appears before the reader. He is poor, therefore he envies the fate of painters who should paint a few pictures in order to bathe in luxury. The young man grumbles at his fate, because he has to live in obscurity and poverty. And here Gogol creates an atypical and completely fantastic situation. An analysis of the work "Portrait" shows the gradual transformation of Chartkov from a talented artist into an envious and greedy person who ruined his talent.

In a shop in Shchukin's yard, the artist finds a mysterious portrait, which, as a result, becomes a source of his enrichment. The picture contains a particle of the diabolical soul of the usurer Petromichaly. At first, Chartkov buys engravings and mannequins with the money received in order to seriously engage in art, but then he succumbs to temptation, acquiring completely useless and unnecessary things for him. It comes to the point that a young man buys up talented paintings by other painters and destroys them at home.

An analysis of Gogol's "Portrait" shows that the desire to have everything at once can kill talent. Chartkov drew beautifully, but even his teacher noticed that he was impatient and kept an eye on fashion trends. The teacher instructs the young artist not to waste his talent on painting portraits for money. But Chartkov wants instant fame and money. An analysis of Gogol's work "Portrait" shows that you have to pay for everything, the painter received wealth, but his brush became colorless, he lost his gift.

Atonement for sins and service to art

N.V. Gogol "Portrait" wrote to contrast the completely different characters of people and their views on art. The father of the narrator was the author of the diabolical portrait. This man, as soon as he realized what power the picture had, and what a sin he had committed, immediately went to the monastery to atone for his sins. The writer does not see anything wrong with the fact that evil is depicted with the help of art, but a person must repent of this and not ruin his talent.

Analysis of Gogol's work "Portrait" shows that the icon painter, who spent more than one year in prayer, was able to paint a picture of the birth of Jesus in such a way that all its heroes seem to be alive. Even the abbot was struck by the holiness of the figures, saying that a higher power led the painter's brush. Nikolai Vasilievich, using the example of two people, showed his attitude towards art. Chartkov went from talent to death, and the icon painter - from committing sin to good.