Read "The Picture" by Aleksandr Kuprin online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
From that time the prince and Rozanof were bound together in a close friendship. They couldn't spend a day without seeing one another. Either the artist came to visit the prince or Prince Andrey went to see the artist. Rozanof was living then in two rooms on the fourth floor of a house in Mestchanskaya Street -- one he used as a studio, the other was his bedroom. The prince invited the artist to come and live with him, but Rozanof refused. "You are very dear to me," said he, "but in wealthy surroundings I might be idle and forget my art. " So he wouldn't make any change.
They were interested in everything that concerned one another. Rozanof would begin to talk of painting, of various pictures, of the lives of great artists -- and the prince would listen and not utter a word. Then afterwards he would tell about his adventures in wild countries, and the artist's eyes would glisten.