Anna Karenina Part 5, Chapters 7-13

Attention turns from the wedding ceremony to Italy, where Anna and Vronsky have been settled for three months. Anna is happy with her new life and loves being with Vronsky, even though she ran away from her son and left her friends behind. But something is changing in Vronsky's head. He realizes he gave up his entire career for Anna, and he is beginning to grow tired of his new life. He takes up painting as a hobby, and finds that he has some talent as an artist. Anna and Vronsky take some of Vronsky's works to a professional painter nearby, a man named Mikhailov. There, Vronsky asks the painter to paint a portrait of Anna. Once Vronsky realizes that the painter is much better than he is, he gives up painting, too, now totally frustrated by his personal sense of uselessness. It's starting to seem that pure romance is enough for Anna, but not nearly enough for Vronsky.