Действующее лицо. Предположения об одном современном портрете Пушкина

38own metaphysical doubts. Because this is a portrait not of a thoughtful or inspired Pushkin but of one who is uneasy and sorrowful. It portrays a harsh, proud man, a skeptic, grieving perhaps for his own lonely fate, or for man’s unhappy lot, who in his search for victory and success has forever lost his way on life’s crooked crossroads. Let us try to understand the artist.It is worthwhile to start with the fact that the yellow hue layered with shades of green and brown predominating in the background bespeaks an autumnal and most likely country setting, very probably in Boldino. In other words, these hues signal that the portrait tells the tale of a humble and stubborn, retiring and free, lonely and impetuous season; recounting a time of imposed, but also desired, seclusion, rich in ideas and bountiful in the fruits of labor but also full of quotidian dismay and spiritual disquiet. We have before us the slightly haughty face of a man who, sensing the bitterness of life, is derisively scrutinizing it, but also, fi lled with wonder and understanding, accepting it. Thence stems an irreconcilable blend of features and states: doubt and resoluteness, patience and ardor, dis-tractedness and inquisitiveness. This is a portrait showing an ambitious person, a humble person, a dandy and a wise man all in one.Here is what he writes to Pletenev on 30 August 1830 from Moscow to St. Petersburg on the eve of his departure for Boldino: “My dear friend, let me tell you everything that weighs on my soul; I am sad, melancholy, melancholy … If I am not happy at least I am not unhappy. Autumn approaches. It is my beloved season – my health usually improves – a time for my literary work to begin. And instead I have to busy myself with the dowry and the wedding … None of this is very comforting … One should let well enough alone. The devil lured me into mad dreams of happiness – as if I were made for it. I should have been content with independence, for which I have God and you to th...