Mstislav Dobužinskij ✝

Russian and Lithuanian scenographer, graphic artist, painter.

M. Dobužinskis, who came from an old Lithuanian noble family, studied at the gymnasium in Kishinev and the Second Gymnasium in Vilnius, and in 1885 - 1887 - at the St. Petersburg Society for the Promotion of Art drawing school. From 1895 to 1899 he studied at the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University, and from 1899 to 1901 in Munich. From 1903 he took part in the activities of the "Art World" Society. This group influenced Dobuzhinsky's further work. From 1902 onwards, he took part as a painter in all Russian artists' associations and in the art exhibitions of the Art World group.

From 1907 onwards, Dobuzhinsky began to express himself as a stage designer, working as a decorator in the theatres of St Petersburg and Moscow. From 1918 he was a lecturer at the A. Shtiglitz School of Technical Drawing and the St. Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts, and in 1922 he became a professor.

In 1923 M. Dobužinski came to Kaunas to participate in an exhibition organised by the Plastic Section of the Lithuanian Society of Artists. In 1925, at the invitation of the State Theatre, he came to create scenery for Pyotr Tchaikovsky's opera "The Queen of Spades". A short time later he was granted Lithuanian citizenship. He spent several years abroad (creating decorations, organising exhibitions) and returned to Kaunas in 1929.

1929-1930 he was the head of the Kaunas Art School's graphic and decorative painting studios. In 1930 he founded a private art studio on Maironio Street, which was open until 1933.

From 1931 he worked at the State Theatre as a scenic artist. In 1933 he participated in the creation of the Lithuanian coat of arms, flag, orders and postage stamps. He was actively involved in the protection and restoration of ancient monuments as a member of commissions. 23 November 1938.

1939, he went to London to prepare an exhibition of his works. There he was caught up in the Second World War. He lived in Paris for a while, then in the USA. He never returned to Lithuania. He died in New York on 20 November 1957. He was buried in the Russian cemetery in Sainte Geneviève des Bois, France.
He designed and illustrated books (H. K. Andersen's "The Ciaulogian", 1922; F. Dostoyevsky's "White Nights", 1923; J. Olesha's "The Three Druces", 1928; B. Sruoga's "Giesmė o Gediminas", 1938), created bookplates, posters, and decorations for twelve performances of the Moscow Art Theatre (I. Turgenev's "The Moon in the Countryside", 1909), for the ballets of S. Diaghilev's company in Paris (1914), and designed 38 productions of Kaunas State Theatre (P. Tchaikovsky's "The Queen of Spades", 1925; S. Gounas' "Faust", 1931; W. A. Mozart's "Don Juan", 1933; J. Karnavičius' "Radvila Perkūnas", 1937). The State M.K.Čiurlionis Museum in Kaunas holds Lithuanian playing cards designed by Dobužinskis and produced in 1933 at the "Spindulis" printing house.

Dobužinskis created landscapes and portraits of Kaunas, Vilnius, St. Petersburg and other cities in a distinctive style. In 1938, he published articles in Romuva on the Lithuanian national flag.

M. Dobužinskiy's interior architecture is noteworthy, including the decoration of the President's Palace, the Vytautas the Great Gymnasium in Klaipėda, and the War Museum. Over 1000 of his works are preserved in the Theatre and Music Museum, and the rest in the Vilnius and Kaunas Art Museums.