The works of the "home-daubers" could be frequently found in the provincial estates. Regardless to the real place of living of a nobleman's son - in his own estate or a thousand miles away - the very fact of the existence of the estate gave a warranty of the order and stability of life. The landowners tended to decorate their family "nests" in any possible way. The core of any estate collection was a family portrait gallery. In a nobleman's mind the idea of family portraits and the estate itself often overlapped. Remember the words of Dubrovsky, one of Pushkin's characters: "This portrait would be grabbed by the enemies of my family, it would find its place in the closet, among the broken chairs or demonstrated in the lobby for mocking and giggling of the huntsmen... No! No!"
   And the young man decides to burn his own house. It is not a motion of revenge yet (he would start the revenge later on), but a way to avoid an outrage upon his paternal home, the symbol of which is portrait.
   What did the portrait tell about, why was it so significant to the inhabitant of the old family estate?

The glory and the fame of that old noble men
Whose shining faces on the walls are framed
For future generations to remember
Those deeds and to adorn my cabinet