Page 1041 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

more Anna, thought it very good, because it was far more
like the celebrated pictures they knew than Mihailov’s
picture.
Mihailov meanwhile, although Anna’s portrait greatly

fascinated him, was even more glad than they were when
the sittings were over, and he had no longer to listen to
Golenishtchev’s disquisitions upon art, and could forget
about Vronsky’s painting. He knew that Vronsky could
not be prevented from amusing himself with painting; he
knew that he and all dilettanti had a perfect right to paint
what they liked, but it was distasteful to him. A man could
not be prevented from making himself a big wax doll, and
kissing it. But if the man were to come with the doll and
sit before a man in love, and begin caressing his doll as the
lover caressed the woman he loved, it would be distasteful
to the lover. Just such a distasteful sensation was what
Mihailov felt at the sight of Vronsky’s painting: he felt it
both ludicrous and irritating, both pitiable and offensive.
Vronsky’s interest in painting and the Middle Ages did
not last long. He had enough taste for painting to be
unable to finish his picture. The picture came to a
standstill. He was vaguely aware that its defects,
inconspicuous at first, would be glaring if he were to go
on with it. The same experience befell him as

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