Two centuries of the Russian classics Two centuries of the Russian classics 2686-7494 IWL RAS https://doi.org/10.22455/2686-7494-2026-8-1-190-209 Research Article Articles A. P. Chekhov’s “Art” in the Context of Prose at the Turn of the 19th and 20th Centuries Astashchenk Elena V. red@rusklassika.ru 25 03 2026 8 1 190 209 A. P. Chekhov artistry art historical and cultural context creativity continuity Copyright © 2026, IWL RAS 2026 The article is devoted to the closest context of Chekhov’s “Art” — a phenomenon and a story of the same name (1886), which differs from Chekhov’s ironic stories about bohemia (“Artists’ Wives,” “Shh!,” “He and She,” “Mari d’elle,” “The First Lover,” “The Playwright,” “Drama,” and “The Discovery”), with its vanity that does not touch the essence of art, taken up by Teffi, A. T. Averchenko, V. M. Doroshevich, and the depiction of everyday life (“The Chorus Girl,” “The Tragicist,” “The Comedian,” “Talent,” “Order,” “Revenge,” and “The Critic”), passed to A. N. Budishchev, V. V. Bilibin, and O. N. Chumina. In 1886–1887, Chekhov illuminates the true creative mystery in stories such as “Art,” “On Holy Night,” “An Actor’s Death,” and “A Tale” lyrically and yet impersonally, like I. A. Bunin later. A decade later, the problem of the national and the individual in art in “Rothschild’s Violin” is complicated by the opposition between creativity and performance, source and consumption. The contradictory development of art in Chekhov’s “A Tale,” especially in the context of the views of his contemporaries — from the classics to typical representatives of the decadent-modernist period — anticipates the fashionable image of the dangerous possibility of directing “art” in any direction and, at the same time, supports the traditional Russian idea of the artist’s responsibility to the world. 1. Balukhatyi, S. D. “Biblioteka Chekhova” [“Chekhov’s Library”]. Chekhov i ego sreda [Chekhov and His Environment]. Leningrad, Academia Publ., 1930, pp. 197–423. (In Russ.) 2. Geideko, V. A. A. Chekhov i Iv. Bunin [A. Chekhov and Iv. Bunin]. Moscow, Sovetskii pisatel’ Publ., 1987. 363 p. (In Russ.) 3. Gindin, S. I. “Konstantin Treplev, Vladimir Findes’eklev i Genrikh Shul’tz (Ob istoricheskoi pochve i literaturnom okruzhenii chekhkovskogo obraza pisatelia-dekadenta)” [“Konstantin Treplev, Vladimir Findeseklev and Heinrich Schulz (On the Historical Ground and Literary Environment of Chekhov’s Image of a Decadent Writer)”]. Chekhoviana. Chekhov i “serebryanyy vek” [Chekhoviana. Chekhov and the “Silver Age”]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1996, pp. 116–127. (In Russ.) 4. Evstigneeva (Spiridonova), L. A. “Protivlenie zlu smekhom (Chekhov i Teffi)” [“Resisting Evil with Laughter (Chekhov and Teffi)”]. A. P. Chekhov i ego vremia [Chekhov and His Time]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1977, pp. 184–200. (In Russ.) 5. Kataev, V. B. Chekhov plius…: Predshestvenniki, sovremenniki, preemniki [Chekhov Plus… Predecessors, Contemporaries, Successors]. Moscow, Iazyki slavianskoi kul’tury Publ., 2004. 392 p. (In Russ.) 6. Letopis’ zhizni i tvorchestva A. P. Chekhova [Chronicle of A. P. Chekhov’s Life and Creative Work], vol. 1: 1860–1888 [1860–1888]. Moscow, Nasledie Publ., 2000. 511 p. (In Russ.) 7. Nikolaev, D. D. “Primechaniia” [“Notes”]. Averchenko, A. Rasskazy: v 2 t. [Stories: in 2 vols.], vol. 2. Moscow, Ladomir Publ., Nauka Publ., 2021, pp. 816–1090. (In Russ.) 8. Polonskii, V. V. Mezhdu traditsiei i modernizmom. Russkaia literatura rubezha XIX– XX vekov: istoriia, poetika, kontekst [Between Tradition and Modernism. Russian Literature of the Turn of the 20th Century: History, Poetics, Context]. Moscow, IWL RAS Publ., 2011. 472 p. (In Russ.) 9. Polotskaia, E. A. O Poetike Chekhova [About Chekhov’s Poetics]. Moscow, Nasledie Publ., 2001. 240 p. (In Russ.) 10. Rozenblium, N. G. “Iz dnevnika I. L. Shcheglova (Leonteva)” [“From the Diary of I. L. Shcheglov (Leontyev)”]. Literaturnoe nasledstvo [Literary Heritage], vol. 68: Chekhov [Chekhov]. Moscow, Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union Publ., 1960, pp. 481–492. (In Russ.) 11. Sobennikov, A. S. Khudozhestvennyi simvol v dramaturgii A. P. Chekhova [Artistic Symbol in A. P. Chekhov’s Dramaturgy]. Irkutsk, Irkutsk University Publ., 1989. 194 p. (In Russ.) 12. Sobennikov, A. S. “Chekhov i Meterlink: (Filosofiia cheloveka i obraz mira)” [“Chekhov and Maeterlinck: (Philosophy of the Human and the Image of the World)”]. Chekhov i Frantsiia [Chekhov and France]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1992, pp. 124–128. (In Russ.) 13. Tiupa, V. I. Khudozhestvennost’ chekhovskogo rasskaza [Artistic Features of Chekhov’s Story]. Moscow, Vysshaia shkola Publ., 1989. 196 p. (In Russ.) 14. Chudakov, A. P. Poetika Chekhova [Chekhov’s Poetics]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1971. 291 p. (In Russ.) 15. Loehlin, James N. The Cambridge Introduction to Chekhov. Cambridge, Cambridge University Publ., 2010. 194 p. (In English) 16. Malcolm, Janet. Reading Chekhov: A Critical Journey. London, Granta books, 2001. 216 p. (In English)