What is the idea behind the work Portrait of Gogol. Features of the composition of the story “Portrait” by N.V.

content:

In 1834 Russian society enthusiastically discussed “The Queen of Spades” by Alexander Pushkin. This mystical work prompted Nikolai Gogol to write the story “Portrait”. wherein important role there is also an element of mysticism at play. The writer published his work in the collection “Arabesques”.

Many critics did not like the work. Belinsky believed that "Portrait" was an unsuccessful attempt, where the author's talent began to decline.

After the scandal with the premiere of The Government Inspector, Gogol went to Italy. Under the southern sun and under the influence of the artist Ivanov, Nikolai Vasilyevich revised the story, and then published it again in 1841.

The writer made adjustments to the dialogues, scenes, and changed the name of the main character. Now he was called Chartkov, not Chertkov, which caused readers to associate him with the devil. The ending of the work has also become different: the figure of the moneylender does not disappear from the picture, but the portrait itself disappears.

The story consists of two parts. The central place in each of them is occupied by the image of the artist. Gogol shows two destinies, two talents with different worldviews, with opposite understandings of the tasks of painting. The hero of the first part is the young artist Chartkov. He serves big hopes, but does not have the funds to buy canvas, paints or even food. However, Chartkov, using his last money, decided to buy a portrait of an old Asian man, shocked by his “living” eyes.

In the second part of the work we will learn the history of the origin fatal picture. One day a moneylender came to the icon painter (he is known to us as the father of the artist B.) and asked him to draw a portrait. The artist agreed to the unusual order because the old man’s appearance made a great impression on him.

Every master is tempted by a portrait. Chartkov, having found the money hidden in the frame, first wants to spend it on new studio, brushes and paints to improve your talent. But instead he acquires unnecessary things, fashionable clothes, visits restaurants. Subconsciously, Chartkov was envious of life before fashion artists, wanted wealth, fame. And this desire has now triumphed over the desire for creative growth. It was the thirst for fame that forced Chartkov to order a laudatory article about himself.

At first, the young painter strives to follow the truth of life, he is not just looking for portrait likeness, but tries... to transfer the soul of a person, his character onto the canvas. But gradually he turns into a craftsman, pandering to the tastes of the crowd, and loses his divine spark.

Chartkov became famous and rich. The public praises him famous people offer to teach in Art Academy. He already looks down on young painters and lectures them. Only after seeing a new one, for real talented picture, Chartkov understands that he has ruined his talent.

The temptation of artist B.'s father was of a different kind. IN demonic form the moneylender was attracted by the opportunity to create a portrait evil spirits. It was a challenge to my talent. The artist felt that he was doing the wrong thing, but professional interest forced him to continue working. Fortunately, unlike Chartkov, the icon painter was able to stop in time. With a huge effort of will, he managed to get rid of the influence of the portrait and cleanse his soul. He bequeaths his son to find and destroy the fatal painting.

The final part of the story does not add optimism. Chartkov went crazy and died, having previously destroyed a large number of their good work. But the terrible portrait could not be burned. He was kidnapped and may have begun to tempt a new victim.

The contrast between the two destinies of talented artists is natural. Gogol wanted to show that only by renouncing worldly goods, from vanity social life an artist can create real paintings, not handicrafts. It is not for nothing that the icon painter finds salvation from the influence of the portrait within the monastery walls.

While working on the story, Gogol was at a creative crossroads. From romanticism early works he approached realism, but had not yet fully comprehended the possibilities of a new direction for himself. In the story “Portrait,” the writer seeks an answer to the question: can art be extremely accurate and mirror life? Or should it represent reality? artistic means, influencing the thoughts and feelings of people, to educate them? After all, the artist in the second part of the story came too close to reality, made the moneylender’s eyes alive and let evil into this world.

The author is responsible for his creation. Gogol emphasizes: only with pure thoughts, with kind hearted you can create a real masterpiece that can elevate the soul, illuminate it with light and joy.

Analysis of the story

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol loved to describe Mystic stories, and after publication “ Queen of Spades” Pushkin in 1834, I decided to write something similar, at the same time unique. The story “Portrait” was first published in 1835 in the book “Arabesques. Various essays N.V. Gogol”, and after the second edition by the author again in 1842 in the magazine “Sovremennik”. The story has certainly attracted the attention of critics due to its plot and style.

It is difficult to single out one main character in it, since each part has its own character around whom the plot is built. However, according to the external outline of events, the main character is still the young and talented artist Andrei Chartkov, who bought a portrait of an old man unknown to him at one of the St. Petersburg auctions. His attention was attracted by the liveliness of the portrait and the eyes of the sitter penetrating deep into the soul. He looked from the unfinished portrait as if he were alive and seemed about to come out of the frame and speak.

But the experienced Chartkov understood that this effect in the picture was preserved thanks to

the masterful work of the artist, whoever he may be. It is interesting that the author chose such a strange surname for his hero. It doesn’t just hurt the ears, but indicates that the artist is in power evil spell fraught with devilry. No other character in the story is given a first and last name. In the second part, the author introduces two more artists, the Son and the Father, who are directly related to the Moneylender depicted in the portrait. In it we will find out true story the emergence of a fatal picture.

In fact, during his lifetime the moneylender had bad reputation. Everyone who has ever borrowed money from him has faced a series of misfortunes. Some went crazy, others committed suicide, and others became terribly envious or jealous. When he turned to a neighboring painter with a request to draw his portrait, he could not even suspect how this story would turn out. Unable to complete the portrait, he fled to the monastery. At the same time, he lost all his relatives, except for his eldest son, who studied far from home.

He had long tried to find and destroy this portrait, because he understood that he had committed a sin by capturing evil spirit on him, who could cause harm to people even after his death. One of the victims of the evil usurer was the artist Chartkov, whom the portrait first enriched, made him a famous and successful person in high circles, and then a madman. In the end, from envy of the works of other artists, Chartkov went crazy. He was buying best paintings and burned them. He himself soon died of consumption.

In the second part of the story, we see how the son of a Kolomna painter tries to buy a portrait of a moneylender at auction. He tells those present terrible story paintings so that they would allow him to buy it back and destroy it. But as soon as he completes the story, it turns out that the picture is somehow mysteriously disappeared, evaporated from the place where it hung. Someone suggested that it was stolen, but the artist strongly doubted it. No one managed to destroy the terrible portrait.

Introduction

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol divided all his stories into two large cycles: “Evenings on a farm near Dikanka”, “Mirgorod” and “Petersburg stories”. Many works of the last cycle convey the idea of the merciless and destructive power of money. “Portrait” is one of these stories.

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

“Portrait” is a story about the tragedy of an artist who learned the joy of inspired creativity and was unable to defend his art in the face of the thirst to enrich himself financially. Gogol, under the guise of a fantastic incident, shows the reader the true capital of Russia as it is, the whole 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 age has long acquired the boring face of a banker,” Gogol notes in the story. In general, the St. Petersburg cycle collected all the injustices that were happening in society, and “Portrait” became the embodiment of the fight 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 real reason which is covered in mystery 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 - this is a mysterious portrait of a strange moneylender. “It was no longer a copy from life, it was a strange painting that would illuminate the face of a dead man rising from the grave.”

The painting forced one artist to waste his talent, another to go to a 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 painting 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 the next victim of the Asian moneylender.

The main idea of the story is that true service to art requires from a person moral fortitude and courage, and an understanding of the high responsibility to society for talent. Chartkov lacked either one or the other.

“Portrait” can be compared with “Mozart and Salieri” by Pushkin. Seduced by the devil, Chartkov “recognized 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

to terrible atrocities. He was overcome by terrible envy, envy to the point of rage.” 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 “all the best that art has ever produced,” trying to destroy art itself. Salieri committed a crime and thereby ruined his talent. Chartkov ruined his talent and his soul and therefore commits atrocities.

The story “Portrait” by N.V. Gogol.

(Teacher's material)

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

Studying Gogol’s story “Portrait” requires a problematic approach to activate students’ attention; problematic questions make them think about the significant issues of the work.

The works of Gogol, which are studied by students of secondary vocational education, deepen the topics outlined in previous cycles. 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 illuminated by a dim lantern. In “Petersburg Tales” the author’s focus on the problems of spiritual self-determination of man, the problems of art, and creativity is most clearly revealed; the writer directed his gaze into the depths of the human soul, trying to see the essence behind the form, the inner behind the external. Gogol constantly warns the reader: “Oh, don’t believe this Nevsky Prospect! Everything is a deception, 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, and tries to see an anomaly in the familiar. “The originality of the artistic system of St. Petersburg stories lies in Gogol’s principles of the relationship between the real and the fantastic.”

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

And the man is like a homeless orphan,
Now he stands 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 (Piskarev “seemed that some demon had chopped up 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 boundary between good and evil is imperceptibly erased. At the same time, the characters experience an existential feeling of loneliness and melancholy. At such critical moments, people need to learn to live and love with a constant “awareness 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 ed.), “Notes of a Madman” - were included in the collection “Arabesques”, published in 1835. The author dreamed of creating a book about St. Petersburg artists, sculptors, and musicians. The first two stories echo a number of Arabesque articles on art issues. 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 instinct of my whole soul that it should be holy... In art there are creations, not destruction. Art is the establishment of harmony and order in the soul, and not confusion 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 his contemporaries. V. G. Belinsky noted: “Portrait” is an unsuccessful attempt by Mr. Gogol in the fantastic genre. There's talent here. The first part of this story is impossible to read without fascination...

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

artistic gift, the influence of art on the human soul entered sporadically. In the final version, this question is posed with complete certainty: “Or is slavish, literal imitation of nature already an offense and seems like a discordant cry?” True 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 the fantasy was veiled.

The story consists of two parts: The first deals with tragic story artist Chartkov; the second tells the story of human transformation. Here N.V. Gogol used the technique 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, but the author of the mysterious portrait managed to overcome the painter of a “discordant life” in himself? What is the meaning of the composition?– answers to these and other questions will help young readers unravel the many mysteries of Gogol’s text. During the lessons we will talk about the secret of creativity, the mystery of the human spirit, possible ways to comprehend the nature of art, how important it is for a person not to betray himself, not to betray his talent and to believe in his calling. 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, “who prophesied many things: in flashes and moments his brush responded with observation, content, and a strong impulse to get closer to nature...”. He knows how to distinguish true art from a fake, to see the “mask” behind the so-called face. Thus, in the paintings exhibited in the Shchukinsky yard, what is first striking is not only the mediocrity of their authors, but also the distorted reality: “He stopped in front of the shop and at first laughed inwardly at these ugly paintings. Here one could see simply stupidity, a powerless, decrepit mediocrity that had arbitrarily entered the ranks of the arts... A Flemish man with a pipe and a broken arm, looking more like an Indian rooster than a man.” Treating with a hero portrait painting, the author sadly notes the lack of light, beauty and harmony inner life in what is depicted. Very little time will pass, and bright, flashy colors will begin to play on Chartkov’s canvases; Psyche’s pretty head will be replaced by Lisa’s languid face, on which “one can detect heavy traces of indifferent diligence in various arts.”

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

Let's compare the editions:

II edition:

“He was an old man with a bronze-colored face, high cheekbones, and stunted; the features of the face seemed to be captured in a moment of convulsive movement and responded not with northern strength. The fiery afternoon was captured in them. He was draped in a loose Asian suit. No matter how damaged and dusty the portrait was, when he managed to clean the dust from his face, he saw traces of the work of the great artist... Most unusual of all were the eyes: it seemed that the artist had used all the power of his brush and all his diligent care in them. They simply 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’s brush was clearly visible, although the paints seemed somewhat cloudy and blackened. It was an old man with a kind of restless and angry expression on his face; there was a smile on his lips, sharp, sarcastic, 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 some strange liveliness was noticeable in them. It seemed that this portrait depicted

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

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

Looking at the mysterious portrait at home, Chartkov simultaneously experienced two opposite feelings: on the one hand, he was very frightened, on the other, some kind of longing gripped him. The young man tried to fall asleep, thinking about “poverty, about the pitiful fate of the artist, about the thorny path ahead of him in this world,” but the portrait did not give him peace: something attracted him, beckoned him behind the screen. The gold that flashed in the hands of the moneylender 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 light; the wandering soul of the hero reveals the state of crisis he is experiencing, which is expressed in loss of orientation, inability to answer the questions “where” and “when”.

Transitions from one dream to another metaphorically indicate the hero’s movement into the abyss of chaos. This episode is reminiscent in theme of the scene “Vakula at Patsyuk’s” from the story “The Night Before Christmas”. The dumpling, which magically fell into the blacksmith’s mouth during the “hungry kutya”, was a kind of “agreement” with evil spirits. However, Vakula’s piety did not allow him to commit a sin. Chartkov did not have an inner core, just as many people living in a broken world did not have it. “Beautiful life”, festive festivities with the ladies, delicious dinners - this was the secret dream of the poor artist in a small room on Vasilyevsky Island. Convulsively grabbing the package, Chartkov watched to see if the old man would notice...” This is how “the signing of a contract with the devil” took place. This topic is not new in literature: it worried Goethe and Byron. Pushkin. Lermontov. But Pushkin in “Scene from Faust” developed the idea that “human nature still retains reverence for concepts sacred to the human race.” Love is one of these concepts. When Mephistopheles tears out the root of love from the hero’s soul, he has no choice but to issue the 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).

In Gogol's story there is no dialogue between the characters. Its participants (the artist and the moneylender) are in “different spatio-temporal and historical planes.”

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

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

Creative tensions and impulses gave way to negligence and indifference

To own creativity. “This man who spends several months poring over a painting, to me, is a worker, not an artist. A genius creates boldly, quickly...” – this is how Chartkov now thinks. How can one not recall Pushkin’s lines:

The service of the muses does not tolerate fuss,
The beautiful must be majestic...

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

“Already he began to reach a time of sedateness of mind and age... Already in newspapers and magazines I read adjectives: “our venerable Andrei Petrovich,”

“our honored Andrei Petrovich”... Already they began to offer him positions of honor.” In all these rows, two opposing plans are revealed: one conveys career advancement, external ascension, 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 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 saw the light for a moment, his youth returned to him, “as if the extinct sparks of talent flared up again.” Here the hero felt a second “beautiful moment,” which for some time restored the artist’s broken 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. Once again, the Faustian motif of the “beautiful moment” illuminated the hero’s life for some time and marked a turning point in his views and character: from blindness to insight, from error to truth. However, restoring his personality turned out to be impossible. Chartkov exhausted himself. When he looked at the painting, “pure, immaculate, beautiful, like a bride, stood before him the artist’s work.” He wanted to make comments, but “his speech died on his lips, tears and sobs burst out discordantly in response, and he ran out of the hall like a madman.” The hero became part of this “discordant” life, forgetting about his high purpose. Chartkorv, like Pushkin's Faust, was possessed by a passion for destruction, but the artist had different motives for such an act. The last days of his life were terrible: he mercilessly destroyed the best paintings, masterpieces of world painting. Evil became indestructible for Chartkov because he was unable to endure and hope. He lacked peace of mind and wise humility to overcome mental turmoil.

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 within himself. The artist, like the young Chartkov, “was looking for that degree of mastery, that creative state that allows one to capture and convey the deep essence of a living human face.” The master, having heard the moneylender’s request to paint a portrait, “the next day, grabbing a palette and brushes, was in his house... “Damn it, how well his face is now illuminated! “he said to himself and began to write greedily, as if fearing that the happy light might somehow disappear.” Chartkov and the bogomaz artist are united by one image - a moneylender. One immortalized it, and the other gave it a second life, “revived it.” Even ancient people endowed portrait images with a magical function (the ability of a portrait to “come to life” and “revive” what is depicted on it.)

A person’s hope for “overcoming” death and a posthumous existence in a portrait image is associated with a portrait image (a moneylender to an artist: “I may soon die, I have no children; but I don’t want to die at all, I want to live”). The portrait turned out “perfect,” as if a living person was looking from the canvas. The author of the portrait, like Chartkov, strived for an accurate depiction and mastery of nature. The owner of the apartment says about Chartkov: “Here he draws a room... he drew it with all the rubbish and squabbles.” Everyone present in the shop was struck by the eyes of the moneylender, “living” eyes that pierce the soul through and through. Imitation of nature is apparently necessary for art, but clearly not sufficient. As V. A. Favorsky notes, “the living” in art is not where completely living heads look from a 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-existent, and that means already to a very large extent and alive.” 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 artist. The painting, created by the artist after his tonsure and hermitage, struck “the extraordinary holiness of the figures.” “The feeling of divine humility and meekness in the face of the Most Pure Mother... holy, inexpressible silence embracing the whole picture - all this appeared in such consistent strength and power of beauty that the impression was magical.”

The story “Portrait” presents the ideal of an artist - the author of a “magnificent” painting. Gogol expresses his position in a few phrases, but freely and with inspiration, enjoying the greatness of the master’s spirit. In this picture, “pure, immaculate, beautiful, like a bride,” the freedom of the artist’s creativity that the writer dreamed of was reflected. The artist’s life was spent far from the “free world”. “He didn’t care whether they talked about his character, about his inability to deal with people, about his failure to observe secular decency... He neglected everything, gave everything to art.” As noted in the research literature, the prototype of the young talented artist became Gogol's friend - A.A. Ivanov. “In the appearance 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 end until the writer’s death. Gogol highly valued the painter's talent and his inherent inquisitive, philosophical mindset. Ivanov devoted all the passion of his heart to working on the painting. Around 1833, Ivanov created sketches of his future creation. The painting unfolds a plot taken from the first chapter of the Gospel of John. In front of us is a lumpy area of the earth's surface; closer to the audience, the soil rises slightly, goes deeper, then drops, again rises steeply into a hill and ends in a valley, behind which stretches a string of mountains. With these movements the artist expanded the space of the painting: each actor becomes visible. On foreground, slightly shifted to the left, under a century-old tree there is a group of apostles, led by John the Baptist. Opposing this group is a crowd descending from the hill, led by the Pharisees. Between these poles there is a line 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 away from Christ. They did not accept the Lord’s teaching, but they came to listen to Him. Each character chooses his own path: either deliverance from sins, or the opportunity to live as before. “Everyone will get it according to their faith,” according to their sense of self in a changing world. some are in confusion and doubt; the slave longs for freedom; the Pharisees live in the past; in the faces of the “trembling” ones one can feel the awakening of the consciousness of one’s own spiritual unsettlement. Some are still just 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 called “closest” to Christ. This is a man with tousled hair, wearing a lingonberry-yellow robe, 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 the sketches it is easy to detect facial features characteristic of Gogol in this character. The writer's introduction to 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 assistance. Gogol was working on the second edition of “Portrait” during this period, and the repentant mood was very consistent with this process.

The connection between A. S. Pushkin’s “Scene from Faust” and N. V. Gogol’s “Portrait” is based on the commonality of certain 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 find itself on the brink of spiritual and physical destruction. When students see how Gogol, relying on literary traditions, reveals a new thought and creates a new plot, they are convinced that the events comprehended by the writer, remaining in the memory of mankind, provide an incentive for further creative searches.

Main methodological techniques, with the help of which, in our opinion, the conceptual mastery of the story will occur among students, bearing in mind the fact that calendar planning allocates 2 hours for studying Gogol’s story “Portrait”, is to conduct a seminar lesson.

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

To understand the content of the story, you can suggest the following questions:

What alarmed you about Gogol’s story “Portrait”?
How does Gogol relate to aristocrats, merchants, and commoners?
What is Chartkov’s appearance in his closet on Vasilyevsky Island and in his apartment on Nevsky Prospekt?
Imagine Chartkov at the moment when he finishes drawing Psyche and when he destroys the canvases of talented artists.
What would you call 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”?
What is the meaning of the epithet and comparison: “In it (the bundle) there were ducats, all of them new, hot as fire”?
What destroys and what saves an artist’s talent?

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

Target: get acquainted with N.V. Gogol’s story “Portrait”; determine its ideological content.

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

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

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

Progress of the lesson

1. Introductory speech from 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 Prospect,” “Portrait,” and “Notes of a Madman.” With the St. Petersburg stories, then 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 during these years.

The main theme of the St. Petersburg stories is the deceptiveness of the external splendor of metropolitan life, its imaginary splendor, behind which lies low and vulgar prose. In addition, Gogol is concerned with the topic of creativity and the artist. He is convinced that talent is God’s gift, it is given in order to “comprehend the high mystery of creation.” The story “Portrait” is dedicated to this topic.

So, the topic of our lesson: “The ideological concept of N.V. Gogol’s story “Portrait”.”

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

2. We listen to reports from previously prepared students.

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

Questions for analyzing the story.

Part I

What is Chartkov dissatisfied with while looking at the paintings in the shop in the Shchukinsky yard?
Why did Chartkov buy a portrait of an old man for the last two kopecks?
What is the significance of the landscape in the episode of Chartkov’s return home?
Why is Chartkov’s room described in such detail?
Did the professor have reason to fear that Chartkov would become a fashionable painter?
Why does the purchased portrait bother Chartkov and does not seem like a work to him? high art?
What properties of Chartkov indicate the artist’s talent?
Is Chartkov right when he thinks that the portrait has a “secret connection with his fate”?
What opportunities does the unexpectedly discovered treasure give Chartkov, and how does he use it?
Why does wealth arouse the desire for fame in Chartkov?
Why do we recognize Chartkov’s first and patronymic from a newspaper article?
What is Gogol laughing at when conveying the chatter of a lady ordering a portrait of her daughter?
Why did the work on the portrait “attract” Chartkov? What and why is false in the portrait of an aristocratic girl?
Why is it that in the portraits that Chartkov paints, similarity is inferior to good looks?
Compare the appearance of Chartkov and the furnishings of his house on Vasilyevsky Island and on Nevsky Prospekt. How has he and his attitude towards art and great artists changed?
Why did “Gold become... passion, ideal, fear, goal” of Chartkov?
What is the difference Russian artist, perfected in Italy, from Chartkov? What artist and what painting do you think we are talking about?
Why does the shock of a perfect painting in Chartkov turn into “envy and rage”, why does he destroy talented works of art?
Why did Chartkov fall into “hopeless madness” and die?

Part 2.

Why does Gogol compare the auction to a funeral procession?
Why are moneylenders necessary for the “sediment of humanity” that settled in Kolomna, and why is the main characteristic of a moneylender insensitivity?
What is so strange about the moneylender from whom the portrait was painted?
What changes occur in people who associate themselves with a moneylender?
Why does a terrible moneylender order a portrait from an artist and why does he agree to paint it?
What misfortunes did the portrait of a moneylender bring to the artist and how did he cleanse his soul of filth?
Which advice from a father to his son do you consider the most important? What is the connection between these tips and Christ’s Sermon on the Mount?
What is the meaning of art and why “talent...must be the purest soul of all”? What is the difference between Gogol’s thoughts 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.

– So we repeated the content of the story, and now let’s pay attention to that fact from Gogol’s life:

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 along with the story “Portrait”. This indicates that Gogol is concerned with issues of creativity and the artist’s place in society.

Gogol is counting on the understanding of readers and critics, but what was the writer’s disappointment when the leading critic of the 30-40s, V. G. Belinsky, disapproved of the story “Portrait”: “The Portrait is an unsuccessful attempt by Mr. Gogol in a fantastic way. Here his talent declines, but even in his decline he remains a talent. The first part of this story is impossible to read without fascination; in fact, there is something terrible, fatal, fantastic in this mysterious portrait, there is some kind of invincible charm that makes you forcibly look at it, although it is scary for you. Add to this many fantastic paintings and essays in the taste of Mr. Gogol; remember the quarterly overseer talking about painting; then this mother, who brought her daughter to Chertkov to have her portrait taken, 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 visible in it. This is an obvious addition in which it was not the mind that worked, and the imagination did not take any part.”

Please note: Belinsky calls the second part of the story “an addition in which the mind worked, and the imagination 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 associated 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 a comfortable life, nor local beauty... 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 selflessly the artist works, making many sketches from life, endlessly changing the poses of the characters in his painting, 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 main character has changed (previously it was Chertkov, which emphasized his connection with evil spirits; Gogol excluded certain mystical scenes, quite realistic characters appeared: Nikita, a professor, the owner of the house, a policeman, ladies-customers. In the first edition, the appearance the moneylender at the end of the story disappeared from the canvas, and in the second edition the portrait disappears, which went around the world to sow misfortune.

Teacher: What made Gogol pick up the 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 destructive for real art).

Teacher: How is this 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 shoved Mars in his face; whoever 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 and talent: “A terrible envy took possession of him, envy to the point of rage... He began to buy up all the best that art had produced. Having bought a painting at a high price. carefully brought it into his room and, with the fury of a tiger, rushed at it, tore it, tore it apart, cut it into pieces and trampled it with his feet, accompanied by laughter of pleasure...”

Teacher: Affected by the microbe of profit and envy, main character 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 still left unsaid? After all, it would seem that the idea is expressed extremely clearly and clearly: a true artist should not sell his soul to the devil; one with talent, he should serve the beautiful on earth. What should the proximity of the first and second parts convince the reader of?

Student: The juxtaposition 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. The artist who touched evil, who painted the eyes of the moneylender, which “looked demonically destructive,” can no longer paint good, his brush is driven by “unclean feeling,” and in the picture intended for the temple, “there is no holiness in the faces.”

Teacher: Absolutely right, the second part of the story is of great importance for the ideological content of the story. Belinsky's criticism made the great writer think about a lot. Life circumstances were such that in Italy he met a true artist (Ivanov), saw how selflessly he worked on a painting on divine theme, - all these facts forced me to take up Gogol’s pen again. In the second part, he talks about the fate of the artist, who, having come into contact with evil, goes through the path of internal purification: “...he withdrew with the blessing of the abbot into the desert... There for a long time, for several years, he exhausted his body, strengthening it at that time. time with the life-giving power of prayer...” Only after this did he allow himself to take up the pen again, and then pictures full of holiness began to emerge from under his brush: “...holy high power drove your brush and the blessing of heaven rested on your work,” the abbot tells him.

Only after this did he receive the right to give instructions to his son, an artist, who is going to go to Italy: “The hint of the divine, the heavenly is contained for man in art, and therefore alone it is already above all... Sacrifice everything to him and love him with all a passion that breathes earthly lust, but a quiet heavenly passion: without it, a person cannot rise from the earth and cannot give wonderful sounds of peace. For to calm and reconcile everyone, a high creation of art descends into the world.”

Conclusions: So, in today’s lesson we got acquainted with N.V. Gogol’s story “Portrait”,

found out what ideological plan author. “Talent is God’s most precious gift - don’t destroy it,” this is what 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's return to the ending 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” refutes or confirms the idea of the omnipotence of evil?”

Literature

Bibliography Gogol N.V. Collection. Op. : in 9 volumes / Comp. preparation text and commentary by V. A. Voropaev and V. V. Vinogradov. – M.: Russian Book, 1994.
Belinsky V. G. From articles and letters. // Gogol in the memoirs of his contemporaries. – M. Without m. ed., 1952.
Khrapchenko M. V. Nikolay Gogol. Literary path. The greatness of the writer. – M., 1984.
Mashkovtsev N. G. Gogol among artists. – M.: Art, 1955.
Marantsman V. G. On the way to Pushkin. – M., 1999.

The work “Portrait,” which we will now analyze, is included in the collection “Petersburg Tales” by Nikolai Gogol, which also includes “Nevsky Prospect,” “The Nose,” “The Overcoat,” and “Notes of a Madman.” Despite all the differences in the plots, they are united not only by the location of the action, but also by a common theme. Of course, analysis of this story will help you better understand Gogol’s idea, which will help you, for example, when writing an essay or simply if you are doing brief analysis story "Portrait" by Gogol.

Problems of the story “Portrait” by Gogol

The work is devoted to the important topic for any writer of true and false art, the responsibility of the artist for his creation. No less significant is the cross-cutting theme that unites all the “Petersburg Tales” - the question of real and imaginary values, the deceptive attractiveness of metropolitan life, behind which lies vulgarity, mediocrity, unnecessary fuss and illusory beauty. The theme of lost illusions, which was actively developed by many during this period, is heard in the story “Portrait”, which we are analyzing. European writers, for example, by the French novelists O. de Balzac, F. Stendhal.

Analysis of the story “Portrait” by Gogol - composition

The work has a two-part composition. The first is dedicated to the fate of the artist Chartkov; his life is traced from early youth to old age, the destruction of talent and spiritual degradation under the influence of serving the golden calf is shown.

The second part shows a true artist who understands the responsibility for the work of art he creates. Having made a mistake, he strives to correct it and goes through the path of spiritual purification.

Two parts are opposed to each other, two artists - two moral poles: one destruction, the second creation. Let us continue the analysis of the story “Portrait”.

The theme of art and the image of the artist in the story “Portrait” by Gogol

Analysis of the story “Portrait” shows that central place occupied by the problem of creativity. If you are writing an essay on this topic, keep this point in mind. It will also help you in preparation summary story "Portrait".

In the first part, the reader sees a young, promising artist Chartkov. He is poor and dreams of having his own workshop so he can immerse himself in creativity without being distracted by any everyday problems. The professor predicts a great future for him, seeing in him a real, but not yet fully developed talent. The teacher warns him against haste and explains that talent requires thoughtful, constant work. But chance interferes with the artist’s fate. In the shop, he unexpectedly finds a portrait of an old moneylender, which struck him with piercing, seemingly living eyes. Although their gaze is unpleasant, an attractive evil is seen in them. Chartkov is shocked by art unknown artist and with his last money he buys a portrait. At night he has a long dream about how the moneylender comes out of his frame and counts the gold ducats. Waking up, the young man finds money hidden in the portrait frame.

Thanks to the analysis of the story “Portrait,” it is clear that outwardly the narrative fits within the framework of the traditional motive of selling the soul to the devil: Satan, appearing in the form of a moneylender, tempts the hero with money, and he succumbs to temptation. However, a thoughtful analysis of the story shows: Gogol repeatedly emphasizes that it is not blind chance or even the devil that is to blame for the fate of the hero. Chartkov’s further behavior is the result of his own choice. So, after receiving the money, the young man thinks about what to spend it on. The first impulse was to rent a small room and work, perfecting the paintings. But then he decides to go to the hairdresser to curl his hair, go to the best restaurant, rent a huge, richly furnished apartment, and even order a journalist to write a laudatory article about himself.

Artist's choice - topic for essay

When the artist gets his first clients, he again faces a choice: to give in to their demands and paint a mediocre portrait that the lady and her daughter like, or to work on the image of Psyche, putting talent and soul into it. But in pursuit of money, Chartkov chooses the easy way and in a few years exchanges his talent for gold. Choose this topic to reveal it in your essay, and the analysis of the story “Portrait” by Gogol will help you with this, as will the summary.

Just seeing beautiful picture A true artist who lived for many years in Italy as a recluse, perfecting his skills, Chartkov realizes that he wasted his life. But resurrection does not occur: on the contrary, he goes crazy, buys paintings by great artists and destroys them in anger.

In Gogol's story, Chartkov is contrasted with a real artist. In the second part we hear the story of a man who painted a portrait of a moneylender. This is a spiritual, self-taught artist who has comprehended the high meaning and spiritual depth of art. What else becomes clear to us when we analyze the story “Portrait” by Gogol?

The artist understands that by creating this picture, he has let evil into the world: the portrait brings misfortune to all its owners. The hero tries to atone for his guilt by going to a monastery, atonement for his sin. Only after cleansing his soul does he decide to write a work pictorial art on religious theme. The artist bequeaths his son to find a portrait that brings evil and “destroy” it.

The words of this artist about art express the thoughts of the writer himself: talent is “the most precious gift of God,” “whoever has talent within himself must be the purest of souls,” a real “high creation of art” descends into the world “to calm and reconcile everyone.”

You have read the analysis of the story “Portrait” by Gogol, and we hope that this information was useful and interesting for you. Visit our literary blog, where hundreds of articles on similar topics will help you get acquainted with famous works, and will also be a good help when writing essays. Also read

And a summary); He worked a lot on it and remade it more than once. “Portrait” develops two themes: 1) about the death of the artist Chartkov and 2) about the terrible moneylender. The first topic develops the idea that it is impossible to serve both self-interest and pure art, practical benefits and the ideal. The evil genius convinced the talented artist that “everything in the world is done for good,” that it was stupid to starve, leaving people in the world of pure dreams. And the hero of the “Portrait,” the artist Chartkov, listened to this voice, was seduced by the blessings of the world, began to look at art as a means of profit, and became an artisan, but became rich because he learned to adapt to the tastes of the “mob.” When he once managed to see a work written by an idealistic artist, he realized which great deity he had betrayed, but he could no longer return to him.

Illustration by Kukryniksy for Gogol’s story “Portrait”

In addition to this sublime view of art, which should be pure and holy, Gogol expressed in “Portrait” another interesting idea that “realism”, as artistic technique, must know the boundaries that not everything in the reality around us can be a subject artistic image. The disgusting face of the moneylender, especially his terrible eyes, was so artistically painted in the portrait that horror took possession of everyone who saw him. Gogol asks: “Or is there such a line for a person to which the highest knowledge of art leads and, having stepped through which, he already steals what is not created by human labor, he snatches something living from the life that animates the original. Why is this transition beyond the line set as the limit for the imagination so terrible? Or, after the imagination, after the impulse, reality finally follows, that terrible reality onto which the imagination jumps off its axis by some extraneous push, that terrible reality that presents itself to the one who thirsts for it when he, wanting to comprehend wonderful person, arms himself with an anatomical knife, opens its insides and sees a disgusting person?

These thoughts of the artist Chartkov were, in fact, the thoughts of Gogol himself during the period of writing “Portrait” - that period of his work when he moved from romanticism to realism and tried to determine for himself the essence of this artistic movement.

Finally, we encounter in “Portrait” the idea of religious significance art. The artist who depicted the moneylender depicted, without knowing it, the devil. When he found out, he went to a monastery, with fasting and prayer he atone for his sin, the sin of an artist who portrayed Satan as the embodiment of sin and evil. Since then, he devoted his art to icon painting, but for a long time he could not get rid of the influence of Satan. Finally, he was forgiven.

Thus, in “Portrait” Gogol (as if anticipating the emergence in literature of the “naturalistic school” of Zola, Maupassant and others) condemned art that comes too close to life and does not understand the phenomena of reality. Gogol sees the ultimate goal of art in a religious and moral mission.

“Portrait” served as an answer to the questions and doubts that worried Gogol himself. In addition, this story was based on whole line Russian works that treated similar themes that were also popular in German romantic literature (cf. "Devil's Elixir" Hoffmann). The fantastic element of the story, the story of the usurer-devil, is also common in German romantic literature. In comparison with the uncontrollable fantasy of Hoffmann, Gogol is still a very moderate writer: the flair of a realist artist helped him stay within the boundaries.