POEM BY M. YU. LERMONTOV “TO THE PORTRAIT” (1840): POETIC OF THE TEXT AND IMAGE

Abstract

The article examines the history and poetics of Mikhail Lermontov’s poem “To the Portrait” (1840). The research material comprised three manu- scripts of the poem: a draft manuscript from the collection of S. A. Rachinsky containing numerous edits, a finalized manuscript with notes by V. F. Odoevsky and P. A. Vyazemsky, as well as another final draft of the poem, which was added to the collection of Karl August Farnhagen von Enze in 1844. The reconstruction of textual history allows to trace, the features of Lermontov’s poetics. While working on the poem, the author consistently rejected the ekphrastic nature of the image created by the reference to a specific artifact — an engraving by Pierre Louis Henri Grevedon “Full-Length Portrait of a Sitting Woman in an Open Dress” (1840). Using a series of associations, comparisons, and oppositions, the poet creates an image of a young woman. Attention to the dynamic poetics of the verbal portrait of Countess A. K. Vorontsova-Dashkova allowed us to show how Lermontov complicated her image. The analysis of the draft versions of numerous antinomies, name change in the final draft allowed to overcome the clichés of perception of the poem and interpret it in the context of the Russian cultural tradition.