Provinces. Voronezh
Artist Mstislav Valerianovich Dobuzhinsky is a famous Russian and American painter, a recognized master of the urban landscape, art critic and memoirist.
Today I want to bring to your attention a few works of the artist. And the very first of these works is “Doll”. Why did I pay attention to her? It turns out that 2nd grade students are invited to write an essay on this picture. Don't you think the world has just gone crazy?
Thank God that I don’t need to write such an essay - how can this be put into words? And what can a second-grade student say about the plot? It's almost "War and Peace" in painting.
Artist Mstislav Dobuzhinsky was born in Novgorod in 1875 in a military family. His father served in St. Petersburg and retired with the rank of major general. After the birth of Mstislav, the parents divorced and the mother of the future artist (singer, liberal) left the family and left. Mstislav stayed with his father.
Subsequently, he met with his mother several times and even periodically lived with her.
For some time Mstislav lived with his father in Chisinau, then he studied at the gymnasium in Vilna. And only then there was training at the Imperial School of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts in St. Petersburg.
The artist began to exhibit his works in 1902, was a member of the World of Art association.
Already in Soviet period(in 1922) received the title of professor at the Academy of Arts, in Petrograd. He worked a lot for theaters, in particular for the BDT.
In 1924 he received Lithuanian citizenship and left the USSR. For some time he worked in Riga, then he left for France, wrote for the Paris Theater N.F. Baliyeva, taught in private schools, drew for Lithuanian newspapers.
In 1935 he moved to England, and in 1939 to the USA, where he worked a lot and died in 1957.
Mstislav Dobuzhinsky often said that his favorite city was Petersburg. Not the main avenues and squares, but the "wrong side" of the city - courtyards, streets, city outskirts. Not a parade uniform, but a soul.
And the artist was looking for this hidden soul not only in St. Petersburg.
Paintings by the artist Mstislav Valerianovich Dobuzhinsky
House in St. Petersburg
Vilna. night scene
Channel. Haarlem
Chernigov. Warehouses
Old Vilna
Glass street in Vilna
Kindergarten in the city
Cathedral in Kaunas
Chernyshevsky bridge
London. Monument
Courtyard of the House of Arts
Blue living room. Sketch of the scenery for the first act of "A Month in the Country" by I. Turgenev
Vilna. Market at the wall
gas factory
Provinces
Night in Petersburg
Petersburg. Alexandrinsky Theater
Petersburg. Wash at the New Admiralty
Petersburg. Fontanka. Summer Palace of Peter the Great
Chernihiv
In mouths. Winter in the city
October idyll (1905)
Vilna. old wall
Urban types (Grimaces of the city)
Embankment in St. Petersburg
Glaziers Street in Vilna
When studying the work of our best masters of book graphics, it is necessary to evaluate them as illustrators. And first of all, I want to do this in relation to. Back in 1909, Alexander Benois, not in blasphemy, but only testifying to the current direction of creative forces, noted that “he has much more of a “narrator” than an “artist of form”. N. N. Wrangel wrote about the same, dreaming that Dobuzhinsky “become a draftsman for children's books, an illustrator” ... And, finally, in our days, prof. A. Sidorov aptly defined him as "one of the best readers among the artists of St. Petersburg."
We will not dwell on the characterization of Dobuzhinsky as a draftsman. In the art of the line, he has more successful rivals. Undoubtedly, his great merits in the field of creating an elegant book (recall his work for the publishing house "The Coming Day", especially on Grimm's unfinished "Michel Angelo"), but even here he must yield to someone, for example, the deceased.
Intro to "White Nights" by F. Dostoevsky
It seems to us that it is most important to focus not on Dobuzhinsky's drawing, not on his books, but on illustrations, because the evolution of his skill in this area is especially interesting, valuable and instructive.
Mstislav Valerianovich Dobuzhinsky belongs in age to the younger members of the group of artists "World of Art". He was born in 1875. From childhood, as the biographer reports, he was surrounded by a cultural and favorable environment for the development of natural abilities. As a boy, he read a lot, fell in love with the appearance of the book, took a special interest in illustrated magazines, drew caricatures, vignettes, and composed fonts. At the same time, an addiction to past eras, to admiring their disappeared way of life, was born in him. That is all that is most characteristic of what we know about its initial development.
After graduating from the university, Dobuzhinsky is engaged in painting and drawing, focusing on the latter, in Munich with Ashbe and Golosha. (Note that many of our graphic artists and engravers studied at the Golosha school.) In 1902, his vignettes appear on the pages of the World of Art, and he is part of a family of artists united around this magazine. Since then, more than twenty years of intense and ever-improving work have passed. Dobuzhinsky works mainly in watercolor, pencil, pen, pastel, less often gouache and sepia. He was also engaged in etching and lithography, and tried his hand at oil painting. He does a lot of portraiture, less landscape, but gives his main strength to the image of the city. Buildings, streets, back streets, squares, canals - that's what first of all attracts his eye. It doesn't matter where: at home in Vilna, at the place of his permanent residence - in Leningrad, or in other Russian cities (Vitebsk, Pskov, Moscow) or during his many travels in foreign countries.
It has been repeatedly said that Dobuzhinsky is primarily a depiction of the city. This somehow immediately makes him closer to the spirit of modernity and distinguishes him from other Leningrad “retrospective dreamers”. However, in the very nature of his perceptions and the way they are conveyed, he remains a true "world-artist". He, of course, knows how to admire the expressiveness of the lines, the general design, the details of the building, arrange his silhouette on the plane of the sheet, and give an interesting angle. Especially in the works recent years there is a desire to transfer architectural forms, their ensembles in themselves. But in the end, it is still most important for our artist to show life itself, which flows both in these stone or wooden dwellings of man and around them. Before us are not ordinary architectural landscapes, but rather images of the “soul of the city”, its inner being.
Old and new year
As always. Does Dobuzhinsky, following the general passion for the past, restore the run-down Russian town of the 30s of the 19th century, or dream of gigantic buildings of the future, where the tentacles of monstrous machines are intertwined against the backdrop of endless walls. Whether he draws with tenderness and a smile the remote province, with reverence - the palaces and churches of Italy, or with love and longing - multi-storey buildings, deep wells, courtyards, factory chimneys smoking into the gloomy St. Petersburg sky. Everywhere buildings, machines, people, animals, the smallest details of life are perceived as an organic whole, as a unity not of their external forms, but of the associations that arise about them. The artistic experience of the viewer is determined mainly by those images, memories, moods that are associated with the objects depicted in the picture or drawing.
Illustration for the fable "The Peasant and Death"
Thus, the “characteristic details” acquire great significance, so expressive not by their heaping up, but by a successful comparison. We see the typical arches of the yellow Gostiny Dvor, merchants with caps calling in customers, a huge puddle, a sleeping halberdier, a pig itching against a pole, a face drawn in chalk on this pole, etc., etc. and we are really transported into City of Nikolaev times. It seems that here, for every little thing, you can find a corresponding quote from him. As if we have before us some kind of "condensed" illustration for the works of this writer, perfectly fulfilling its purpose of being a school manual.
The drawings “Weekdays” and “Feast” of 1906 seem to be illustrations only for an unwritten poem, glorifying a certain collective of an industrial city. gg. Of course, Dobuzhinsky does not always narrate in his main theme “City”. But he is always faster illustrator of poetic images living in his mind than the embodiment of what gives him his visual experience. And that is why we can expect so much from him in the field of purely literary illustration.
The first years of his artistic activity were, however, devoted to "applied graphics" (vignettes, covers, postcards with views of St. Petersburg). Only in 1905-1906. gravitation towards the plot drawing found some application in the work for the then satirical magazines Zhupel and Infernal Mail. Dobuzhinsky, like most of the artists of the World of Art, could not be a caricaturist, a caustic mocker. The most successful - "October idyll". The drawing here is meticulous (more than is customary in weekly magazines), but in itself is not very expressive, even timid. The coloring is deliberately insignificant. Only the corner of the Empire (this is an inevitable tribute to "passeism") house is depicted. Next to the window, from which only the lower part is visible, on the wall is a church mug; there is an announcement right there - the notorious manifesto of October 17 about the granting of "freedoms". Blood on the sidewalk and foundation. A doll, a galosh, glasses are lying around ... To the right is a deserted street stretching into the distance. You can see a double-headed eagle over a pharmacy...
"October idyll". From the magazine "Zhupel", No. 1 for 1905.
Only a few details are compared with the most inventive laconism - and the goal of incriminating satire is achieved.
Somewhat apart among the works for the "Bogey" stands "1905-1906". Typical graphic techniques revealing German influences. The plane of the sheet is observed, strict symmetry is preserved, the lines are strictly drawn, straight, stylized. Successful contrasts of white, black, gray (given by shading). Here Dobuzhinsky gives an example of a conditionally symbolic drawing that was so widespread at that time, a definitely illustrative task. It is characteristic of the tastes of that time that at the end of 1906 the magazine "Golden Fleece" announced a competition for poets, prose writers and artists on the theme "Devil". Dobuzhinsky, out of competition, gave his "Devil", placed in No. 1 of the "Golden Fleece" for 1907. This is an ideal plot symbolic and allegorical composition. Genuine horror emanates from this sheet, from one juxtaposition of gray and dark spots.
This feeling grows as you peer into the details, realize their significance, and move from contemplation to understanding the visible.
II
From individual plot drawings, which sufficiently reveal the artist's inclination to interpret poetic images, let's move on to his work in the field of illustrating literary works.
The first book illustrated by Dobuzhinsky was Alexei Remizov's fairy tale "The Wrinkle". A small album in a folder decorated with a simple pattern. There are no vignettes in the text, only five drawings on separate sheets, made in a certain graphic manner. The line dominates, strictly drawn, closed. There are no black and white contrasts. The drawings are colored, or rather, slightly tinted. The plane of the sheet is strictly observed. The objects depicted are simplified in their outlines, but not everywhere with sufficient consistency. The illustrations show the most interesting thing in the fairy tale, everything that the child would like to see depicted. But the spirit of Remizov, his nationality and the peculiar childishness of an adult man are not expressed by Dobuzhinsky. The whole book seems to be German.
Closer to the artist was "The Stationmaster", to which even earlier, in 1905-1906, he made six sepia drawings, corrected with a pen. Of course, here the task of recreating the external life seemed to be quite attractive. early XIX in. But Dobuzhinsky, deliberately and lovingly reproducing a number of characteristic trifles (a typical carriage, a milestone, a lady's hat with a basket, oval portraits on the walls, etc.), does not bring them to the fore, as happened with other retrospectives overly carried away by the old days, and does not obscure the essential. After all, Pushkin's descriptions of the external situation, although very thorough, are nevertheless always given in passing. Only the artist showed Dunya's apartment in all the charms of the "Empire", but here he followed the text, indicating a particularly magnificent setting. The greatest attention is paid to the stationmaster. Now perplexedly fumbling for something in his pocket, now shaking with bending knees, he is everywhere in the foreground. After all, in the story of his spiritual drama - main topic. And Dobuzhinsky, apparently, in his illustrations, did not seek to supplement with concrete visual images what was given by Pushkin, but to interpret everything that is in the story, maintaining the same ratio of individual elements (psychological and descriptive) and fixing in six drawings all the most significant points storytelling. Nothing has been omitted; rather, one can even consider the depiction of Dunya with a child riding in a carriage to be superfluous, since the episode of the return of the caretaker's daughter is sufficiently reflected in another drawing.
As for the very manner of drawing, it is still timid and uncertain. The artist does not dare to go beyond the somewhat rustic realism. The composition is characteristic: the figures put forward strongly to the fore are cut off below. These illustrations were made, obviously, without concern for the possibility of their reproduction and their connection with the form of the book. They are definitely not graphic. Have not been published. Yes, and I would like to see them rather in a separate album, and not placed among the text.
What the drawings for "Wrinkle" lacked - the penetration of the spirit of the interpreted work - and what was not in the "Station Master" - graphic form - all this is evident in the illustrations for "The Night Prince" by Sergei Auslander. Before us is a certain achievement.
Illustration for "The Night Prince" by S. Auslander
Dobuzhinsky is still limited to compositions on separate sheets; one single ending doesn't count. On the other hand, there is already a fully developed graphic style, corresponding to the fantastic character of the story itself. Comparisons of black and white are widely used; the lines lost their former dryness, became freer, more flexible and more expressive. Separate images are recreated boldly and brightly without the former timid realism and without inappropriate stylization. Figures and individual objects are arranged naturally and harmoniously on the plane; there is neither deliberate randomness nor excessive symmetry. The spectacular reproduction of the flickering outlines of falling snow flakes, the reflection in the mirror, the reflections of the candle on the wall only reinforce the impression of something mysterious and creepy.
The artist refused to depict events that took place in real terms, and settled on only four main episodes. mysterious adventures of the Night Prince. At the same time, the illustrations reflect all character traits Auslander's story. First of all, admiring the life of the 20s of the 19th century, when the described event unfolds. In understanding the era, the draftsman surpassed the writer; unforgettable is the corner of old St. Petersburg at night with a humpbacked bridge covered with snow, or the magnificent languid beauty of Alexander's times. No less completely expressed is the peculiar fantasy of the whole narrative, reminiscent in its techniques.
Illustration for "The Night Prince" by S. Auslander
There is something Hoffmannian in the image of Zilerich - whether he is shown to us in a fluttering lionfish, or at a ball in a frock coat and yarmulke - and in the whole scene in a tavern with gigantic shadows on the wall and the young man's crazy gaze reflected in the mirror. Dobuzhinsky was less able to convey that element of eroticism that accompanies the description of obscure sensual longings. young hero. But, despite the latter circumstance, the illustrated "Night Prince" is a rare example of an almost complete coincidence of the mood of the writer and artist.
III
After The Night Prince in the field of illustration, Dobuzhinsky did not create anything like this for many years, until 1917, not only in terms of success, but also in terms of the significance of the task. During this time, the artist devotes his main forces to decorative painting. In his works for the theatre, in essence, as N. N. Wrangel, who we have already quoted, noted, he "illustrates" the writer's intentions in the same way. Sketches of scenery for "A Month in the Country" could be placed with great success among the text of the play, the understanding of which they would significantly complement. It is characteristic that, while working with enthusiasm on this production for the Art Theater, in 1910 Dobuzhinsky not only made a number of portraits of actors in their roles, but also made a series of drawings based on Turgenev's motives, and then vignettes. Everything that is depicted on them is not in the play, but it could be, it was, and, perhaps, similar free paraphrases - best themes for book decorations. In the same way, some of the sketches for the production of Nikolai Stavrogin are definitely perceived as illustrations for The Possessed.
Just as diligently as for the theater, the artist works in the field of book graphics, but mostly ornamental. Illustrations are rarely drawn. Some of them are scattered among different publications, some remained unpublished (1913 drawings for poems). As for the "Treasurer", issued A circle of lovers of fine publications in 1914 (prepared in 1913), here again Dobuzhinsky is mainly the decorator of this beautifully "made" book. The inscriptions and patterns on the cover are especially good; but of all that is in it, we are now interested in a small image of a hussar reclining in a dressing gown, in front of which the image of a naked beauty floats in clouds of smoke. In this picture - the whole poem of Lermontov. Less successful is the frontispiece in colors (the scene of the treasurer's fatal loss). There are two more drawings in the text, of which the second plays the role of an ending and, repeating the theme of the penultimate stanza (the hussar carries off the treasurer in the midst of the morning silence of a provincial town), expressively completes the text.
Illustration for Andersen's "Swineherd"
The illustration no longer exists separately on a separate sheet, but is introduced into the very organism of the printed page. This was systematically done in the 1918 schedule for the "Life of Count Cagliostro" by M. Kuzmin. To illustrate this long story, in 26 chapters, about the many adventures of the great magician of the 18th century. in the same way as short stories Remizov or Auslander, it would be very difficult and difficult. Dobuzhinsky preferred to confine himself to the book decorations of this small, 16th part of a sheet, elegant volume. At the end of each chapter is placed some kind of Masonic sign or emblem; at the beginning, there is a drawing related to the subsequent text. The story of the carnival, the betrothal of Balsamo to Lorenza and how they used to call themselves the Counts of Cagliostro, is preceded by the image of two rings, a masquerade mask and a crown. The episode with the presented snuffbox is the snuffbox itself, charmingly shaped and with a silhouette on the lid (as Kuzmin says: the hunter aims at the duck, and the bather crawls out of the water), from which a necklace and a case with bank notes fall out. Of course, all these ingenuous or cunning hints, allegories, symbols do not interpret the very content of the story, but only put forward individual moments, characteristic details, into which the reader begins to carefully peer. However, the artist is not limited to only "emblems", sometimes he cannot resist not showing us this or that hero, or even depicting an entire scene. Much cannot be reproduced in a drawing intended for such a miniature edition. It is all the more appropriate to turn to the help of a “stingy” silhouette, in our view, associated with the era described by Kuzmin. The thinnest white silhouettes on a black background are especially refined, drawing even entire landscapes.
Frontispiece to "Poor Lisa" by Karamzin
Dobuzhinsky turns to the shape of the silhouette again a year later, in 1919, while working on The Young Lady-Peasant Woman. Only two figures are inserted into the text (the title vignette and the ending), the other three are placed on separate pages. The illustrations here simply decorate the book itself. Despite the captions that have been so diligently drawn, in the images of individual scenes we mainly admire a number of details piled up in abundance in addition to the indications of the text (for example, the furnishings of Lisa's room), or the beauty of the silhouette. It is typical for our artist that he does not so much observe the expressiveness of the black spot as he cares about the complex sinuosity of the contour lines, trying to tell as much as possible with them. And he will show the buttons on the camisole, and individual blades of grass, and cut through the mass of foliage so that branches and individual leaves can be seen. And so charming is the letter "A", made of twigs, in the hands of Alexei. True, Pushkin says that Liza learned to read and write by letters drawn on paper. But how not to forgive this deviation from the text, especially since it is quite in the spirit of the story.
IV
We spoke about Cagliostro and The Young Lady-Peasant Woman before other illustration works of our artist of the last period, not only because in them the decorative element prevails over others. The point is that these drawings and silhouettes are made in the old "classic" graphic manner. The line here is complete, clear, defined, outlining the contours entirely. But already from about 1916-1917. Dobuzhinsky began to develop new techniques. He refuses the external completeness of the drawing, which makes it look like a drawing, and gravitates towards a freer and more whimsical patterning, to a broken, twisting line, to light, almost airy outlines, to a capricious play of contrasts of spots. In this new manner, very remarkable illustrations were made in 1917 to.
Before us is a book, with its format, the arrangement of numerous drawings among the text, with their bright fresh colors reminiscent of the well-known publications for children by I. Knebel. Dobuzhinsky, by the nature of his work, promised to become an excellent "children's artist." And how not to regret that after Remizov's little successful fairy tale, he did not have to work seriously in this area for many years. Something was done for the Children's Almanac. Some of the fables were also illustrated (for anthologies " living word” and “Flower Garden”) and at the same time with great deliberation and thoroughness. Let us stop at least at the drawing “The Peasant and Death” of 1908. At the same time, one involuntarily recalls the silhouette, performed three years later for the same fable and repeating the same composition, but turned the other way around and with some changes (death holds the scythe differently and left hand; an hourglass with bat wings is placed separately at the bottom). Comparing both illustrations as such, and not as regards the perfection of the art form, we must give preference to the earlier. Here winter is shown more clearly, death is more terrible, more expressive is an old man with a gray beard and a bewildered outstretched hand in a warm mitten. But not only as a thorough "narrator" Dobuzhinsky is close to young readers, he is related to them by simplicity of perception, keen observation combined with ingenuity, a rare memory for trifles and a touching love for things, as if for living beings. And that is why there is so much charm and genuine childishness in his depictions of the adventures of two mischievous people - the Nolly doll and the clown Pshik (to the story in the Firebird collection, 1911).
It is quite understandable that from childhood our artist especially fell in love with the great storyteller. But only eight years after his first great success in the field of illustration ("The Night Prince"), fully armed with the accumulated experience in interpreting other people's ideas (scenery for plays by playwrights of different times and peoples) and having worked a lot for the art of the book, he set to work on watercolors to "Swineherd". The tale is illustrated throughout, literally - from beginning to end. On the cover is a princess and a swineherd, between them is a magic bowler hat. We open the book and immediately see with our own eyes everything that is narrated in the very first lines. To the left, a full-page depiction of a prince mourning at his father's grave, to the right above the text, in an oval, an aging princess with a buffoon. We turn over the page - in front of us on the left is a large image of the throne room. In the foreground are huge fancy blue vases with gifts. The tale goes on to say that the vases contained a rose and a nightingale; both figures are immediately shown to us in the midst of the text. And he won’t forget about anything: about the bowler hat, and about how the maid of honor bargained for the price of it, and about the ratchet. But then the conflict grows: the king saw his daughter kissing the swineherd. This is very important, and therefore - the corresponding illustration on a separate sheet, as well as the one that reproduces the scene of the prince's departure. The unfortunate princess was left alone; in the final vignette, we see her weeping under a tree. And finally, on the cover, with just a few mischievous strokes, a pig is sketched over a thrown crown. Fourteen drawings densely dotted the text, with which they both externally and in spirit merge into one whole. Before us is really a “picture book”, the honor of creating which equally belongs to both the artist and the writer.
It truly expresses a somewhat peculiar, but very penetrating understanding of Andersen's fairy-tale world - naive, graceful and a little comical. Dobuzhinsky seemed to want to convey this in the very manner of graphics (is it only possible to talk about book graphics here?): With a capricious, grotesque, crooked line; caricatured, simplified forms; coloring ingenuously bright and at the same time gentle. (By the way, even in the coloring techniques, one finds rather a search for a new watercolor technique than concern for the best possible reproduction of the drawing with the help of a printing press.) All the characters are fabulous, but treated ironically, sometimes caricatured. The princess is depicted as a cutesy fading girl. Perhaps this irony is out of place in a book for children. But Andersen's fairy tale is far from being quite for children. His princess is a completely German bourgeois, she sings "Augustin" and is very interested in what the neighbors have for dinner. Dobuzhinsky has nothing to do with it; he only diligently, possibly fully and penetratingly interpreted his beloved writer.
From now on, our artist does not work on illustrations only for any literary work, but on an illustrated book as a whole. Just like a book one wants to talk about "The Swineherd", as well as about "Poor Liza".
Illustration for "Poor Liza" by Karamzin
Surprisingly suitable for Karamzin's "sensitive" story to be published in the form of a small volume in a dense green wrapper with a sticker on which the title is displayed in naively patterned letters. And so much about the condescending admiration of the "retrospective dreamer" says the cover, on which two garlands around the inscription are intertwined in the shape of a heart. The book is decorated with five drawings inscribed in quick, whimsical and jerky light lines. Small patches of black have been introduced here and there. In the whole manner of drawing, there is some special purity, freshness, simplicity, perhaps somewhat artificial, but quite corresponding to the “spirit” of cutesy sentimentalism. Dobuzhinsky, to the displeasure of other overly pedantic admirers of antiquity, does not follow the easier path - stylization for engraving, but boldly remains true to his search for new forms of graphics.
The first drawing plays the role of a frontispiece. In a frame, curved according to the tastes of the end of the 18th century, Karamzin is depicted on the banks of Lizin's pond. This is, as it were, an illustration for the lyrical introduction to the whole story. The remaining four drawings reproduce the main points in the history of Lisa and Erast. It is characteristic that a lot of attention is paid to the landscape, as is the case with Karamzin himself. One can only protest against the fact that in the image of the meeting at the Red Gate too much space is occupied by everyday scenes. Here the artist, apparently, could not resist the temptation to show the life of the then Moscow. Of course, in the text there is not a word, and could not be, about any details of the genre. Quite in the spirit of the era and the most literary work naive-allegorical image under each illustration of two doves. But the two vignettes that frame the whole story are especially characteristic. On the first (initial) one, a hut is depicted in the rays of the sun in front of the Simonov Monastery, from the chimney of which smoke rises merrily. Below it is a heart between white wings. On the second - the same hut, already destroyed, under a cloudy sky. Below is an hourglass and black wings. The naive-elegiac tone is sustained here to the end with exceptional consistency.
After " Poor Lisa”In the same 1921, Dobuzhinsky was also working on Pushkin’s The Miserly Knight and Leskov’s The Dumb Artist. On the graphics of these books lies the stamp of some haste, incompleteness. Therefore, paying tribute to the courage of the artist, who sets himself ever newer and more complex tasks, one cannot but admit that this time he did not achieve complete success.
"The Miserly Knight" is zealously decorated. On the cover is a continuous pattern of helmets, arrows, coats of arms, and swords crossed under skulls. On the half-title and the title page, the inscriptions and their ornamentation are drawn "under the gothic style". Large drawings are given in a characteristic architectural setting. All this emphasizes the spirit of the era, perhaps with excessive persistence, since, in the end, in Pushkin's dramatic scenes, their universal meaning is more important. However, Dobuzhinsky, remaining true to himself, of course, not only “decorates”. He prefaces each act with a kind of frontispiece, in which he depicts what happens in this action. But since there are almost no external events, the first and third frontispieces have little content and are essentially superfluous. Only the second is significant, giving the image of a miserly madman among his treasures. As for the drawings above the text, although they reproduce what is said in the remarks, they nevertheless illustrate the life of the Middle Ages rather than the drama itself. Perhaps the most meaningful are the little endings. But the dramatic tension of Pushkin's tragedy, its monumental and at the same time such humane images, remained unembodied, despite all the "meaningfulness" of the illustrations.
Even more plot-driven is the graphics of the "Dumb Artist". Even on the cover, the combination of a cemetery cross, an overturned lyre, a theatrical mask, a bloody knife and a whip indicate what will be discussed.
Four large drawings reproduce the main points of this "story on the grave", which tells about tragic fate serf actress and her lover. There is something creepy in these drawings, but again there is no action, no dramatic tension. Apparently, this is not in the means of Dobuzhinsky, who usually tends to depict static moments. In addition, he is not always good at portraying the human figure, especially in motion. There is a lot of superfluous confusion in the lines, in the arrangement of the masses, which does not at all correspond to the outwardly calm, almost epic tone of the old nurse's story, set out in Leskov's magnificent language. The most successful thing in "The Toupee Artist" is capital letters. An old technique, already familiar to us from Cagliostro, is used here - the reproduction of some details of the narrative. Masks, whips and chains, pistols and gold coins, and even whole scenes flash before us. The reader lovingly peers into all the “little things” that are so simply and clearly depicted inside the small squares that are the background for the letter, at the same time, he perceives the very text of the book more attentively.
We repeat, the interpretation of a literary work describing human passions was not given to Dobuzhinsky. And how many illustrators can do it? Perhaps here any interpretation will be condemned by the thoughtful reader.
From the book "Memories of Italy"
And over the past two years, the artist has not returned to such complex, almost insoluble tasks. In his book graphics, as well as in his drawings, he mainly uses architectural motifs. These are the seven illustrations of 1922 for Dobuzhinsky’s “Memoirs of Italy”, published by the same “Aquilon” in 1923. Verbal descriptions and images of those places in Italy (almost all architectural landscapes), which the author recalls with such a warm feeling in their artless notes, mutually complement each other.
It is life big city with its multi-storey buildings, and not individual characters, we primarily see in the illustrations (alas! - few and hastily made) to an abridged translation of Zola's "Trap", intended for the general reader.
And again, the album of lithographs "Petersburg in 1921" is dedicated to the city. This, of course, is not the place to analyze the technical merits and demerits of Dobuzhinsky's first attempt at painting on stone. But it would be unfair not to mention this album. After all, this is a kind of poem that tells about the temporary desolation of the northern capital, about the new way of life that was born during the years of the revolution. About how snow covered Isaac and Bronze Horseman how winches appeared next to the sphinxes, how they began to fish from granite embankments, and on broken lanterns the children made giant steps, how wastelands turned into vegetable gardens, and more about how cheerfully flags fly over the Neva on the ships of the Red Baltic Fleet.
And again to Petersburg, but already completely different, such as it was in the middle of the last century, the artist returns in illustrations to Antsiferov's interestingly conceived, but sluggishly written study of Dostoevsky's Petersburg. These drawings apparently arose in connection with the 1922 work on Dostoevsky's White Nights, perhaps Dobuzhinsky's most remarkable book.
Once again, let's look at everything that was done by the artist in the field of illustration. How dissimilar are the drawings for The Night Prince, The Swineherd and Poor Lisa. The point here is not only that they arose in different periods the creativity of the master. Here the variety of "graphic language" corresponds to the different nature of the poetic works themselves.
The illustration systems are also different. Sometimes in the vignettes only free paraphrases are given on the motives of the text (“A month in the countryside”). Sometimes the book is ornamented with drawings that reproduce only characteristic details ("Life of Cagliostro"). But most often Dobuzhinsky strives for a systematic and possibly fuller interpretation of the fairy tale, story, drama lying before him. An attentive "reader" and an experienced "narrator", he is able to dwell on the most significant moments of the narrative, the most vivid images, expressive "little things" that he notices so lovingly.
For his best creations, Dobuzhinsky managed to find material that could be “graphically interpreted”. One can argue about whether Andersen's "Swineherd" is fabulous. But hardly anyone would argue that these watercolors are unworthy of a fairy tale and do not deepen our understanding of it. As for Poor Liza, we almost without any effort on ourselves perceive this story through the eyes of its illustrator. And, finally, the drawings for "The Night Prince" can be safely recognized as congruent in spirit with the text.
Cover for "White Nights" by Dostoevsky
But now the artist takes up work on Dostoevsky's White Nights. What is there to illustrate? The mental world of a solitary dreamer is inexpressible, external events are of little interest and are so monotonous. Then Dobuzhinsky turns his main attention to the architectural landscape, which is only "given" in the story to our imagination. And needless to say, with what heartfelt love and precisely in the spirit of early Dostoevsky, Petersburg of the forties was reproduced. Everywhere - on the endings, vignettes and large drawings - we see the bulk of multi-storey buildings, quiet night streets, sleepy canals. The figures of the hero and heroine are relatively unnoticeable. Here, the two main moments of the narrative, psychological and descriptive, are in inverse proportion than in Dostoevsky, for whom the main thing is the dreamer's heartfelt drama, and the pictures of the white nights and the city are just a background. The illustrator does not at all strive to embody all the images of the writer, but only complements him, and precisely where the means of the latter are limited. In this way, an illustrated book, rare in terms of the organic integrity of the evoked experiences, is created.
The graphics themselves are amazing. The usual "curvature" of the lines and sketchy outlines have lost some of their former deliberateness. Each stroke strives to be not only free and unconstrained, but concise and internally justified. With amazing skill, with the help of only the contrasts of wide spots of printing ink with the whiteness of paper, the whitish dusk of the northern summer night, the early dawn, the delicate outlines of light clouds and the harsh arrays of houses going up, the stacks of the woodyard, the motionless surface of the water and the slanting lines of the pouring rain are conveyed. It is characteristic that nowhere is the drawing encircled by a closing line, but directly flows into the plane of the sheet. Perhaps this is not entirely appropriate where some objects (channel gratings, figures) are strongly advanced to the fore, from which only the upper part is visible. But in other cases, extraordinary effects were achieved, for example, in the image of the brightening sky (morning of the fourth night) or the water surface (the second night - Catherine's Canal near the Church of St. Nicholas Wet).
Six of the eight large drawings depict St. Petersburg on a white night. Of course, each of them illustrates some place in the text; but the figures of Nastenka and the dreamer are perceived by the viewer only as a necessary part of the whole landscape. And even in those two drawings that depict the interiors, the main thing is not the person, but the environment.
Illustration for "White Nights" by Dostoevsky
The significance of the endings must also be noted. It was in them that all the vigilance and ingenuity of Dobuzhinsky was always especially manifested. Usually, in the final drawing, the image that expressively ends any passage or the entire narrative is repeated (in "The Stupid Artist", in "The Trap" and in the second act of "The Miserly Knight"). Once the artist simply finished what the writer only hinted at. After the final phrase of Pushkin's "The Young Lady-Peasant Woman": "Readers will relieve me of the unnecessary obligation to describe the denouement" - it is drawn how both fathers bless Lisa and Alexei. Sometimes the ending reproduces some random, but characteristic detail. The hero of “White Nights” looks longingly at how everyone leaves for the dacha in the summer, taking away things on wagons and barges. And this motif is used in a charming drawing that closes the first chapter. But the most curious thing of all is the fiction that the illustrator showed when ornamenting the final lines of Dostoevsky's story. He does not depict anything, but simply over the five letters “end” inscribes in characteristic sweeping handwriting those words that will forever remain in the reader’s memory: “remember and love your Nastenka.” Not everyone in the White Nights schedule is equally successful. But in general, we repeat, both in design and in execution, this is one of the most perfect creations of Dobuzhinsky.
Illustration for "White Nights" by Dostoevsky
The illustration is closely connected with the era in which it arose, and with the social group for which it was intended. Like any interpretation, it belongs to the most "mortal" types. artistic creativity. And if there is a long life left, then only as a drawing, as a graphic; its significance as an interpretation of a monument of another art is usually perceived after a certain time only in a historical perspective. But the drawings for Dostoevsky's story are so conceived and executed that this provides them with a long existence and a great influence on the reader-spectator.
From the book "Masters of Modern Engraving and Graphics", State Publishing House, 1928
Mstislav Dobuzhinsky, one of those artists, is one of the people who knew that they were created for art. Despite all the failures, he continued to work on himself and improved.
The artist often experienced creative torments, but he continued to create smoothly. The painting "Doll" in 1905, was written by the author, when he created a cycle of works about St. Petersburg, he compared Old city with the new, tried to describe what kind of spirit reigned in the life of the city. The author often tried to capture and display the spirit of the era.
The painting "Doll" has a deep meaning, an old doll on the windowsill of a long abandoned wooden house, symbolizes memories of the past, childhood, significant events in a person's life.
Some nostalgia, and even depression, can be traced in the works of Dobuzhinsky at the beginning of the 20th century, the artist sincerely misses the old city. The view from the window resembles an old, kind rural courtyard, where there is a small shed.
Although the author painted an old house that is located in St. Petersburg, it looks like a village cozy house, which used to be in the city a lot. The artist shows how time has changed, and the old shabby doll resembles a carefree old city, where happiness, goodwill, innocence could be found on every corner, now all this is gone, only bright memories remain.
The picture makes you rethink human values, as well as think about whether the changes are good, whether everything new is pleasant to a person. Everyone must find answers to these questions for himself, the canvas only leads to them.
At the sight of a work, the viewer may have different emotions, since the picture helps to remember and think about the past, and each person already has different feelings about this relief, nostalgia, hatred, moral satisfaction.
Or this: For most of his life, Mstislav Valerianovich Dobuzhinsky lived in Russia, where he was born. Petersburg was his home for a long time. The artist loved him and dedicated many of his cityscapes to him. They usually depict discreet houses, old courtyards. The works, as a rule, are made in the style of symbolism or modernity. One of the paintings on this topic is "Doll", which was written in 1905. A look directed at the window of a dilapidated house falls on the doll. She lies in the right corner of the windowsill, carelessly thrown and forgotten by her mistress. Outside the window, according to the logic of things, there should be a landscape big city what was Petersburg. But instead, there is an old, rickety barn that is not at all urban looking. A half-grown path winds to the sides, and a dense forest begins right behind a wooden fence. It looks more like a rural landscape than an urban view from the window.
In the whole picture, abandonment, neglect, emptiness shine through. This is just confirmed by a forgotten or deliberately abandoned doll. She recalls the distant years of past childhood, when little Mstislav had to tear his childish heart and filial love between separated parents. He loved them both, and they lived in different cities, because of which the boy had to make constant moves, living in turn with his mother, then with his father. Nevertheless, his childhood was carefree compared to adulthood, which is why the nostalgic notes sound so distinct in the painting “Doll”. It is possible that the author had some personal memories associated with this toy, or it should be considered as an attribute of a lost past that cannot be returned, because it is time itself. One way or another, but near this window with an old doll, you can indulge in memories.
