This article deals with the portraits of characters in Bryusov’s “small” prose. After the analyses of the writer’s portrait characteristics and his ideological and aesthetic views, the author came to the following conclusion: the strengthening of the impressionistic beginnings is dictated by the weakening of the characterological function of a portrait in his work. In most cases Bryusov gives up connections between the character’s appearance and his character. As a rule, a portrait does not express the writer’s attitude towards a character and his actions.