The Mysterious Portrait

Characters

• Tchartkoff — painter: A young painter who chooses wealth over disciplined art.
• the usurer — portrait subject: A sinister old man whose gaze haunts the portrait's owners.
• the professor — mentor: Chartkov's mentor, warning against fashion and easy fame.
• the painter's son — second-part narrator: An icon-painter's son who reveals the portrait's origin.
• Nikita — Chartkov's servant: The serf servant who grinds the paints and puts up with his master's temper.
• the painter of the portrait — an icon painter of Kolomna, father of the narrator of Part II: He painted the fatal portrait of the usurer, then withdrew to a monastery to atone for it.