Mstislav Dobuzhinsky
Russian artist (1875-1957)
Mstislav Valerianovich Dobuzhinsky or Dobujinsky (Russian: Мстислав Валерианович Добужинский, Lithuanian: Mstislavas Dobužinskis; August 14, 1875 – November 20, 1957) was a Russian-Lithuanian artist noted for his cityscapes conveying the explosive growth and decay of the early 20th-century city.
Biography
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 Saint Petersburg Imperial University, simultaneously studying in private studios. After graduating from the university, he was trained from 1899 to 1901 by Anton Ažbe in Munich and Simon Hollósy in Nagybánya (Austria-Hungary). In Munich, he came to be influenced by the Jugendstil. On his return to Russia, he joined the Mir iskusstva, an artistic circle which idealized the 18th century as the "age of elegance".
Dobuzhinsky was distinguished from other miriskusniki by his expressionist manner and keen interest in modern industrial cityscapes. 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.
“Mstislav Dobuzhinsky” enters the record as russian artist (1875-1957). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Mstislav, Dobuzhinsky and Russian can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q972018. VIAF identifies the subject as 24869402. The Library of Congress control number is n83067475. 6 of 6 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1875, 1957, 1885 and 1887.
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This entry incorporates text from “Mstislav Dobuzhinsky” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.