Early Works of Mstislav Dobuzhinsky and Jugendstil Graphic Art

The article examines a number of M.V. Dobuzhinsky’s graphic works published in “Jester”, “The World of Art” and “Apollo” magazines, in comparison with the works of artists in the Munich magazines “Jugend” and “Simplicissimus”. There are revealed the motifs that influenced Dobuzhinsky’s works: the image of pavement and brickwork, the image of a black cat. The author has found that Dobuzhinsky repeated the drawing of the devil by T.T. Heine in a vignette for the magazine “Golden Fleece”. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that, for the first time, it analyzes M.V. Dobuzhinsky’s graphic works published in Russian magazines of the turn of the century, comparing each of them with drawings with similar motifs in the magazines “Jugend” and “Simplicissimus”. The chronological method of analyzing the works of M.V. Dobuzhnisky’s magazine graphics made it possible to reveal the genesis of the image of the city, as well as to clarify the beginning of his appeal to the theme of classicism architecture. In addition, the article introduces into scientific circulation Dobuzhnisky’s drawings for the Petersburg satirical magazine “Jester”. Their chronological analysis in comparison with similar works from the Munich satirical magazines reveals the genesis of the artist’s mastering of Jugendstil drawings in the first year of his autonomous activity. The results obtained demonstrate the influence of woodcuts by Albrecht Dürer on the formation of a unique line in Dobuzhinsky’s drawings. The author concludes that that due to the artist’s appeal to Dürer’s woodcuts, as well as to engravings by Japanese masters, M.V. Dobuzhinsky followed the same path as the masters of the Munich magazine graphics, having developed by the mid-1900s their achievements to a new level in his works.

1. Chugunov G.I. M.V. Dobuzhinsky’s Book and Magazine Graphics, Sovetskaya grafika [Soviet Graphics], issue 8. Moscow, Sovetskii Khudozhnik Publ., 1984, pp. 220—272 (in Russ.).

2. Zavyalova A.E. “The House on Fontanka”: Formation of the Image of Petersburg in Mstislav Dobuzhinsky’s Works, Observatoriya kul’tury [Observatory of Culture], 2019, vol. 16, no. 5, pp. 526—535. DOI 10.25281/2072-3156-2019-16-5-526-535 (in Russ.).

3. Shut: khudozhestvennyi zhurnal s karikaturami [Jester: art magazine with caricatures], 1902, no. 14.

4. Shut: khudozhestvennyi zhurnal s karikaturami [Jester: art magazine with caricatures], 1902, no. 20.

5. Dobuzhinsky M.V. Vospominaniya [Memories]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1987, 477 p.

6. Mir iskusstva [The World of Art], 1902, no. 12.

7. Fahr-Becker G. Iskusstvo moderna [Art Nouveau]. Cologne, Könemann Publ., 2004, 425 p.

8. Chugunov G.I. (ed.) M.V. Dobuzhinskii. Pis’ma [M.V. Dobuzhinsky. Letters]. St. Petersburg, Dmitrii Bulanin Publ., 2001, 444 p.

9. Zolotoe runo [Golden Fleece], 1907, no. 1.

10. Shut: khudozhestvennyi zhurnal s karikaturami [Jester: art magazine with caricatures], 1902, no. 18.

11. Apollon [Apollo], 1910, no. 7.

12. Mir iskusstva [The World of Art], 1903, no. 1—2.

13. Apollon [Apollo], 1910, no. 8.

14. Thieme U., Becker F. Joseph Sattler, Allgemeines der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart. Bd. 1—37. Leipzig, E.A. Seemann Publ., 1935—1970, vol. 29, pp. 487—488.

15. Mir iskusstva [The World of Art], 1903, no. 10—11.

16. Makovsky S.K. Mstislav Dobuzhinsky — a Graphic Artist, Na Parnase Serebryanogo veka [On the Parnassus of the Silver Age]. Moscow, Nash dom — L’age d’homme Publ., Yekaterinburg, U-Faktoriya Publ., 2000, pp. 289—318.

17. Shut: khudozhestvennyi zhurnal s karikaturami [Jester: art magazine with caricatures], 1902, no. 23.

18. Mir iskusstva [The World of Art], 1903, no. 9.

19. Simplicissimus, 1899, no. 31.

20. Adskaya pochta [Infernal Post], 1906, no. 2.

21. Risunok XIX veka. T. 2. Kn. 2. G — I [Drawing of the 19th Century. Volume 2. Book 2. G — I]. Moscow, Skanrus Publ., 2013, 461 p.

22. Kuzmin M.A. Lesok: Liricheskaya poema dlya muzyki s ob’’yasnitel’noi prozoi v 3 ch. [A Grove: Lyrical poem for music with explanatory prose in 3 parts], 35 p.

23. Zavyalova A.E. Hoffmann’s Works in the Art of Mstislav Dobuzhinsky, Observatoriya kul’tury [Observatory of Culture], 2017, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 330—335. DOI: 10.25281/2072-3156-2017-14-3-330-335 (in Russ.).