Mstislav Valerianovich Dobuzhinsky or Dobujinsky ( lt, Mstislavas Dobužinskis, August 14, 1875,

Novgorod Veliky Novgorod ( rus, links=no, Великий Новгород, t=Great Newtown, p=vʲɪˈlʲikʲɪj ˈnovɡərət), also known as just Novgorod (), is the largest city and administrative centre of Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It is one of the ...

– November 20, 1957,

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

) was a Russian and Lithuanian artist noted for his cityscapes conveying the explosive growth and decay of the early twentieth-century city. Of noble Lithuanian extraction, Dobuzhinsky was born on August 14, 1875 in Novgorod into the family of an army officer. From 1885 to 1887, he attended the Drawing School of the Society for the Promotion of the Artists. Between 1895 and 1899, he read Law at the University of St. Petersburg, simultaneously studying in private studios. After graduating from the University, he was trained from 1899 to 1901 by

Anton Ažbe Anton Ažbe (30 May 1862 – 5 or 6 August 1905) was a Slovene realist painter and teacher of painting. Ažbe, crippled since birth and orphaned at the age of 8, learned painting as an apprentice to Janez Wolf and at the Academies in Vienna and ...

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...

and

Simon Hollósy Simon Hollósy; (2 February 1857, Máramarossziget (now Sighetu Marmației, Romania) – 8 May 1918, Técső (now Tiachiv, Ukraine) was a Hungarian painter of Armenian ancestry; original name was: Choriban (Korbuly).Gudenus János József:Ö ...

Nagybánya Baia Mare ( , ; hu, Nagybánya; german: Frauenbach or Groß-Neustadt; la, Rivulus Dominarum) is a municipality along the Săsar River, in northwestern Romania; it is the capital of Maramureș County. The city lies in the region of Maramureș ...

(Austria-Hungary). In Munich, he came to be influenced by the

Jugendstil ''Jugendstil'' ("Youth Style") was an artistic movement, particularly in the decorative arts, that was influential primarily in Germany and elsewhere in Europe to a lesser extent from about 1895 until about 1910. It was the German counterpart of ...

. On his return to Russia, he joined the

Mir Iskusstva ''Mir iskusstva'' ( rus, «Мир искусства», p=ˈmʲir ɪˈskustvə, ''World of Art'') was a Russian magazine and the artistic movement it inspired and embodied, which was a major influence on the Russians who helped revolutionize Eur ...

, an artistic circle which idealized the 18th century as the "age of elegance". Dobuzhinsky was distinguished from other ''miriskusniki'' by his

expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radi ...

manner and keen interest in modern industrial

cityscape In the visual arts, a cityscape (urban landscape) is an artistic representation, such as a painting, drawing, Publishing, print or photograph, of the physical aspects of a city or urban area. It is the urban equivalent of a landscape. ''Town ...

s. He often painted seedy or tragic scenes from urban life which expressed the nightmarish bleakness and loneliness of modern times. Among his works were also humorous vignettes and sketches with demon-like creatures which seemed to embody the monstrosities of urbanization. Like other members of the

Mir iskusstva ''Mir iskusstva'' ( rus, «Мир искусства», p=ˈmʲir ɪˈskustvə, ''World of Art'') was a Russian magazine and the artistic movement it inspired and embodied, which was a major influence on the Russians who helped revolutionize Eur ...

, Dobuzhinsky also experimented with

scenic design Scenic design (also known as scenography, stage design, or set design) is the creation of theatrical, as well as film or television scenery. Scenic designers come from a variety of artistic backgrounds, but in recent years, are mostly train ...

. At first he worked for

Constantin Stanislavski Konstantin Sergeyevich Stanislavski ( Alekseyev; russian: Константин Сергеевич Станиславский, p=kənstɐnʲˈtʲin sʲɪrˈgʲejɪvʲɪtɕ stənʲɪˈslafskʲɪj; 7 August 1938) was a seminal Russian Soviet Fe ...

at the Moscow Arts Theatre, but later on also contributed sets to several

Diaghilev Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev ( ; rus, Серге́й Па́влович Дя́гилев, , sʲɪˈrɡʲej ˈpavləvʲɪdʑ ˈdʲæɡʲɪlʲɪf; 19 August 1929), usually referred to outside Russia as Serge Diaghilev, was a Russian art critic, pa ...

productions. He was renowned as an excellent art teacher; among his young pupils was

Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (russian: link=no, Владимир Владимирович Набоков ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian-American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Bor ...

, with whom he maintained correspondence for decades.

During the First World War Dobuzhinsky went with

Eugene Lanceray Yevgeny Yevgenyevich Lanceray (russian: Евгений Евгеньевич Лансере; 23 August 1875 – 13 September 1946), also often spelled Eugene Lansere, was a Russian graphic artist, painter, sculptor, mosaicist, and illustrator, a ...

to the front lines to sketch. In 1918, he supervised the theatrical workshop at the State Educational Workshops of the Decorative Arts (the former Stieglitz School of the Technical Drawing). In 1920, he took part in the Second Congress of the Communist International. In 1923-24, he went abroad to study developments in European art and to arrange one-man shows. In 1924, Dobuzhinsky followed the advice of Jurgis Baltrusaitis and withdrew to

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

. He was naturalized there in 1924 and lived in

Kaunas Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Traka ...

until 1925. Between 1925 and 1929 lived in Paris where he designed sets for Nikita Balieff's The Bat. He returned to Lithuania in 1929. In Lithuania he worked at a state theatre as

scenographer A scenographer or production designer, develops the appearance of a stage design, a TV or movie set, a gaming environment, a trade fair exhibition design or a museum experience exhibition design. The term originated in theater. A scenographer work ...

and created scenography for 38 plays, besides running a private painting school (1930–1933).He then emigrated to England in 1935, and moved to the United States in 1939 where he stayed for the duration of the war. He spent the last ten years of his life in Europe, occasionally returning to New York for theatrical work. He died in New York on November 20, 1957. His memoirs were published posthumously in Russian. Among his later works are series of masterful and dramatic illustrations, notably for

Dostoyevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (, ; rus, Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский, Fyódor Mikháylovich Dostoyévskiy, p=ˈfʲɵdər mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ dəstɐˈjefskʲɪj, a=ru-Dostoevsky.ogg, links=yes; 11 November 18219 ...

's ''White Nights'' (1923) and

Yuri Olesha Yury Karlovich Olesha (russian: Ю́рий Ка́рлович Оле́ша, – 10 May 1960) was a Russian and Soviet novelist. He is considered one of the greatest Russian novelists of the 20th century, one of the few to have succeeded in wri ...

's ''Three Fat Men'' (1925). Dobuzhinsky contributed sets for theatre productions in Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, and Düsseldorf. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, Dobuzhinsky painted imaginary landscapes of the besieged Leningrad. He is interred at the Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois Russian Cemetery Departement de l'Essonne, Ile-de-France, France; Plot: grave 3428.

Collections

Dobuzhinsky is represented in the following institutions, among others:

Tretyakov Gallery The State Tretyakov Gallery (russian: Государственная Третьяковская Галерея, ''Gosudarstvennaya Tretyâkovskaya Galereya''; abbreviated ГТГ, ''GTG'') is an art gallery in Moscow, Russia, which is considered th ...

, Moscow; The A. A. Bakhrushin Theatre Museum, Moscow; The Russian Museum, St. Petersburg;

National Gallery of Armenia The National Gallery of Armenia ( hy, Հայաստանի ազգային պատկերասրահ, ''Hayastani azgayin patkerasrah'') is the largest art museum in Armenia. Located on Yerevan's Republic Square, the museum has one of the most prominent ...

, Yerevan;

Irbit State Museum of Fine Art The Irbit State Museum of Fine Art contains some important works including etchings by famous European artists. At the moment the museum is the only one in Russia specializing in engravings. In its collection there are engravings by Italian, Dutch, ...

, Irbit.

References

External links

Mstislav Dobuzhinskiĭ Papers and Designs, circa 1909-1952
held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division,

New York Public Library for the Performing Arts The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, is located in Manhattan, New York City, at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on the Upper West Side, between the Metro ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dobuzhinsky, Mstislav Valerianovich 1875 births 1957 deaths People from Veliky Novgorod People from Novgorodsky Uyezd Nobility from the Russian Empire Landscape painters Scenic designers Painters from the Russian Empire Lithuanian artists Lithuanian scenic designers Modern artists Expressionist artists Illustrators from the Russian Empire White Russian emigrants to Lithuania Lithuanian emigrants to the United States