- The palazzo that Anna and Vronsky move in to helps Vronsky maintain his ideal of being a dashing young amateur artist who has abandoned the world and ambition in favor of the woman of his dreams. He succeeds in maintaining this role for himself.
- One morning when Golenishchev is visiting, the conversation turns to a Russian painter named Mikhailov, who lives and works in their town.
- Vronsky speculates that Mikhailov could do a portrait of Anna.
- Anna suggests that the painter instead do a portrait of Annie (their daughter).
- Anna looks out the window and sees Annie with her wet nurse, a beautiful Italian woman who makes Anna jealous because Vronsky once complimented the woman's beauty.
- Golenishchev looks down on Mikhailov for being poverty stricken and uneducated.
- They all decide to pay him a visit and take a look at his paintings.