He chooses to become rich and famous, but when he comes upon a portrait from another artist which is "pure, faultless, beautiful as a bride"[1] he comes to realize that he has made the wrong choice.
The first part of the story takes place in nineteenth-century Saint Petersburg, Russia and follows a penniless yet talented young artist, Andrey Petrovich Chartkov.
Tchartkoff is at a loss for what to do until the clumsy inspector accidentally cracks open the portrait's frame, revealing a pouch filled with one thousand gold sovereigns.
Dumbfounded, Tchartkoff pays what he owes and begins making grand plans for the projects he can complete with his newfound wealth, recalling the encouraging words of his old mentor to “ponder over every work” and nurse his talent, while ignoring the superficial, “fashionable” styles of the times.
In the midst of the bids, a young man appears who claims he has “perhaps more right to this portrait than anyone else.” He promptly begins telling the audience his story.
Specifically, his borrowers developed qualities contrary to their previous personalities: a sober man became a drunkard; a fine young nobleman turns on his wife and beats her.
He becomes jealous of one of his pupils (revealed to be the young Tchartkoff), attempts to sabotage him, flies into rages, chases away his children and comes close to beating his wife.
That the plot of the demonic Kunstlernovelle seems largely derivative of Western authors such as E. T. A. Hoffmann, Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Robert Maturin or Washington Irving.
This reflects a general concern among Russian writers in the 1830s about the degradation of culture under the condition of a nascent market economy that came to replace the previous aristocratic patronage system.
[14] Loosely, scholars have grouped literary works that are focused on the failings of society (such as Arabesques) during the mid to late 1800s as Petersburg Texts.
Part of the reason Gogol felt the need to write stories showcasing the true nature of Saint Petersburg and the toxic atmosphere the city (and indeed, the country) bred was that he himself had lived there; he worked briefly there as a government clerk and was struck by “the utter lack of social interaction” among his colleagues at the time.
[13] Though Andrey is able to attain immediate wealth and fame because of the agreement he makes with the painting, he is eventually driven mad by the talent of other artists and pays the price for his ruthless pursuit of societal advancement.
Famous landmarks such as the city's parks and trees were absent in his portrayal of Saint Petersburg in "The Portrait" as Gogol instead emphasized the grim, crowded appearance of its stores and buildings.
Most prominently, "The Portrait" was grounded in a theme that reflected an underlying social problem, in this case being greed and the desperate pursuit of advancement.
As he reaches the end of his life and his sanity gradually gives way, he begins to destroy artwork without discrimination, and our initial disgust for Andrey over his deal with the painting is at least partially replaced with pity.
[13] The Academic American Encyclopedia cited the work as an example of the "conflict between Gogol's idealistic strivings and his sad, cynical view of human propensities".