# Tchartkoff — Short Fiction character guide

> Tchartkoff in Short Fiction by Nikolai Gogol.

**Role:** major

**Also known as:** Young Tchartkoff

**First appearance:** 0036-the-mysterious-portrait

## Snapshot

A penniless Petersburg painter who spends his last twenty kopeks on a sinister old portrait and finds his talent, his rent, and his peace of mind slipping away.

## Who they are

Tchartkoff is a young artist scraping by in a cold Vasilievsky studio, with no candles, no money for his landlord, and a servant-model named Nikita who is always in the streets. He buys the mysterious portrait almost by accident, half-ashamed of the impulse, and carries it home through the twilight while envying the delicate tones of a sky he cannot afford to paint. The purchase marks the moment his grinding poverty begins to curdle into something stranger and more dangerous.

## Relationships

### [The Artist](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_40_se/characters/the_artist)

_psychological_

Tchartkoff is a struggling painter who becomes obsessed with and corrupted by a mysterious portrait created by the Artist.

### [The Artist](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_40_se/characters/the_artist)

_psychological_

Tchartkoff is a struggling painter who becomes obsessed with and corrupted by a mysterious portrait created by the Artist.

## In the story

### [Short Fiction](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_40_se/chapters/short-fiction)

Artist in 'The Portrait' who becomes corrupted by materialism.

### [The Mysterious Portrait](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_40_se/chapters/the-mysterious-portrait)

The young artist who becomes captivated by the mysterious portrait.

### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_40_se/chapters/i)

The artist whose talent fades as he pursues wealth and fashion, and who later descends into madness after seeing a former comrade's masterpiece.

### [II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_40_se/chapters/ii)

Referenced as the young artist who originally painted the portrait of the usurer and later became a monk.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_40_se/characters/tchartkoff
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_40_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_40_se/characters