The Portrait (short story)

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The Portrait is a short story by Russian author Nikolai Gogol. It is the story of a young artist, Andrey Petrovich Chartkov, who stumbles upon a terrifyingly lifelike portrait in an art shop and is one of Gogols’ most demonic of tales, hinting at some of his earlier works such as St. John's Eve.

In it, he opens describing a typical Petersburg starving artist shop in Shchukin Court. Even today one can find vendors selling large numbers of works from unknown artists, just as it appears in the story. At a store there, the young artist Andrey Chartkov is looking at various paintings, criticizing their poor form and style. The owner of the shop tries to get him to purchase different paintings, though he does not pay attention. While the owner continues speaking to him, the artist notices a painting of a man in an Asiatic robe that seems unfinished and becomes transfixed by the apparent power behind its eyes. He manages to purchase it for only twenty kopecks, and scolds himself for doing so because it was the last money he had. He goes home to his dilapidated apartment, learning from his servant Nikita that his landlord had come earlier with a police officer asking for his rent. As he sits in his room at night, he notices that the eyes of the portrait seem to be alive and staring at him. He finds himself strangely terrified while looking at it, and covers it with a sheet. Then, a bit later, Chartkov sees the old man in the portrait climb out and place rolls of money on the ground that say “1,000 gold pieces.” One rolls under a screen where the artist is lying, and he picks up it up quickly before the old man notices. He goes back to the canvas, but seems to realize he is missing a roll and walks towards the screen, but then the artist suddenly awakens in pure terror, realizing it was a dream. However, he sees the old man climbing back into the portrait and suddenly finds himself standing before it, to only awaken again. He looks to see the painting is still covered, but then it appears as though an invisible hand is grasping the sheet to take it off, and he awakens again in terror. He manages to get himself back to sleep after some difficulty. Next, his landlord appears with the police officer again demanding his rent or the removal of the artist from the apartment. As they are speaking with him, the officer investigates the portrait and cracks the frame. Out of the frame comes a roll that says “1,000 gold coins” on it, and Chartkov makes up an excuse for why he wasn’t going to pay with the money right away. After paying his landlord he first decides that he is going to use the money to enable him to lock himself in his room and calmly paint as his creativity comes to him, instead of being forced out of circumstance. However, much like his old nature when he was a student, he becomes consumed by greed and uses the money to buy new clothes, fix his hair, dine at an expensive restaurant and otherwise uses it vainly. He then goes to a newspaper to have an advertisement printed about his superb artistic talents, and soon begins to paint portraits of local nobility. At first he finds it difficult to paint so mechanically, but soon he is able to create numerous portraits without a single thought and becomes a very respected portrait painter in the city. However, from this he finds that he seems to no loner be creative and he grows jealous when a pupil of his produces a work to critical acclaim at a gallery. He becomes so enraged that he begins buying up masterpieces all over the city at various auctions, takes them home and tears them up in an insane rage in his home. He eventually goes insane and dies a painful death from his endless suffering and agony. This is the first part of the story. In the second part, an auction is occurring in the city where the portrait is being sold. An artist named B. interrupts the bidding to explain that this is the painting he has been looking for and proceeds to tell the story behind it. In a village known as Kolomna, there was a moneylender known for being particularly odd and was thought to be in league with the devil. Many people who had borrowed money from him would often come to a terrible end. He gives several examples of this and then explains how his father had created the portrait. The moneylender came to B’s father to have his portrait painted. His father finds himself painting almost against his will and feels severely troubled by the painting. The moneylender implores with him to finish it because he does not want to die and be forgotten since he has no children, and seems to almost imply that he is condemned unless the portrait is finished. His father refuses, however, and the moneylender dies the next day. He then begins to go insane, destroying his artist supplies and drove his children away. One day he decides to take a knife and cut the portrait to pieces before throwing it into the fire, but his friend stops him, saying it is one of his best works. His friend, however, finds that owning the portrait seems to drive him mad as well, and from here the portrait is passed along to various people, all who seem to have terrible nights and moments of insanity when in possession of it. B’s father, meanwhile, enters a monastic order to purify himself and becomes so dedicated that he leaves the monastery and spends entire days lifting his hands to the sky from morning until night, eating only raw roots from the ground. After several years, he returns to the monastery, feeling he has been properly cleansed, and completes a work of the Virgin Mother that he was asked to do before. The painting is incredible and considered a masterpiece. When B meets up with his father in his robes, he tells him about the portrait and commands him to find it and destroy, stating that he feels he was possessed by evil when he was painting it. Thus B ends his story at the auction, but everyone is horrified to find that during his speech, someone stole the portrait from the auction stand.