Anna Karenina Ch. 137: Chapter 137

Summary

Anna's portrait in Italian dress proceeds through its fifth sitting. The painter captures her beauty while Italy holds them in temporary paradise. Art documents a period Anna and Vronsky still experience as open and bright.

Vronsky stops work on his own portrait of Anna. Whether from dissatisfaction, comparison with Mihailov, or restlessness, he abandons the canvas that might have fixed her image under his hand alone. The stop marks a limit to his amateur identity.

Plans stir toward Petersburg, Seryozha, and a country estate. Exile has been refuge; now return and property loom. The chapter closes the Italian art arc and points toward re-entry into Russian structures Anna fled.

Anna's portrait in Italian dress documents paradise while Vronsky abandons his own canvas of her. Plans toward Petersburg, Seryozha, and a country estate end the Italian art arc and point toward re-entry into Russian life Anna fled.

Vronsky stops his own portrait of Anna when comparison stings; Petersburg, Seryozha, and estate plans end the Italian interlude and point toward Russian structures. The chapter closes on that beat with no easy moral, only the next consequence waiting in the following pages.

Leaving Italy means leaving the fiction that art and love can float outside Petersburg gossip; estate plans and Seryozha's name pull Vronsky back toward accountable Russian life.

In this chapter: Terms Characters Key Quotes Modern Story

Why This Matters

Reading Transition Before It Arrives

Vronsky stops painting Anna while talk turns to Petersburg, Seryozha, and an estate. Tolstoy signals closure before characters act.

When portraits finish and half projects are abandoned, ask what chapter of life is ending even if days still feel bright.

Coming Up in Chapter 138

Levin will appear three months married, discovering happiness unlike his expectations and quarreling over a lost way. Part Five returns to Levin three months after the wedding. He expected perfect happiness and finds marriage more complex..

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Original text

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Chapter 137

Anna's portrait in Italian dress proceeds through its fifth sitting

Mihailov sold Vronsky his picture, and agreed to paint a portrait of Anna. On the day fixed he came and began the work. From the fifth sitting the portrait impressed everyone, especially Vronsky, not only by its resemblance, but by its characteristic beauty. It was strange how Mihailov could have discovered just her characteristic beauty. “One needs to know and love her as I have loved her to discover the very sweetest expression of her soul,” Vronsky thought, though it was only from this portrait that he had himself learned this sweetest expression of her soul. But the expression was…

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Critical Thinking Exercise

8 minutes

Signals of Return

List three details that end the Italian arc (fifth sitting, stopped portrait, plans). Explain what each foreshadows.

Consider:

•Include Seryozha
•Include estate
•Include Mihailov comparison

Journaling Prompt

Write about a chapter of life that ended in small signs, not announcements.

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Chapter 137

Summary