person
Nikolai Pavlovich Sorokhtin
Sorokhtin
also: Сорохтин, Sorokhtin
A landscape/decorative painter who built the house at the Melikhovo estate and had owned it since 1888; pressed for money and eager to go abroad, he sold the property to Chekhov in February 1892. In this letter Chekhov chides him as a 'scatterbrain' for delaying the mortgage needed to complete the deed of sale, and reports a dream that the 200-ruble deposit paid to him has been lost; "our artist," whose close-cropped head is read as a bad omen two sentences later in the same anecdote, is almost certainly Sorokhtin himself, though the letter does not repeat his name at that point.
Reading notes
- To M. P. Chekhova, 9 February 1892. Bobrov. §3 that scatterbrain Sorokhtin mortgaged his estate
Nikolai Pavlovich Sorokhtin, a painter who had owned the Melikhovo estate since 1888 and built its house, was selling it to Chekhov -- pressed for money and eager to go abroad. The deed of sale required Sorokhtin to complete a mortgage first; Chekhov's sister Maria Pavlovna and brother Mikhail had already inspected the property on his behalf, and the purchase closed within days of this letter (2 February 1892, per external biographical sources), with Chekhov himself never having seen Melikhovo before buying it.
- To M. P. Chekhova, 9 February 1892. Bobrov. §5 Our artist's close-cropped head doesn't promise anything good
"Наш художник" ("our artist") is not named again by name in this section, but the identification with Sorokhtin (named two sentences earlier in the same anecdote, as the recipient of the 200-ruble deposit) is strongly supported externally: Sorokhtin was himself a professional painter (the Melikhovo house's builder and previous owner), so "our artist" reads as a wry epithet for the same man rather than a reference to a third, unidentified figure. Recorded as a high-confidence inference, not a certainty, since the letter's phrasing keeps the two references formally distinct.
- To M. P. Chekhova, 9 February 1892. Bobrov. §9 when we'll be closing the purchase
The same property purchase referred to throughout the letter -- the Melikhovo estate being bought from Sorokhtin (\S3, \S5) -- for which Chekhov asks that their brother Misha be on hand in Moscow around 14-15 February.