The Works of I. S. Turgenev in the Art of M. V. Dobuzhinsky

Abstract

The article is the first to examine the issue of the influence of Ivan Turgenev’s works on the art of Mstislav Dobuzhinsky not only in scenography, but also in illustrations and vignettes. Thanks to the artist’s memoirs, it was established that Turgenev’s works did not arouse his creative interest. It is concluded that Dobuzhinsky read the novels The Noble Nest and Smoke in his youth. In the design of Turgenev’s plays A Month in the Village; Breakfast at the Leader; The Workman; Where it is thin, there it is torn; and Provincial for the Moscow Art Theater, Dobuzhinsky turned to the proposal and choice of Konstantin Stanislavsky. The author used a comprehensive method that combined a formal-stylistic analysis of the sketches of sets and costumes, illustrations and vignettes, with a source-based analysis of the artist’s diaries and letters. It was revealed that the silhouette-figure “Girl with Flowers” can be attributed to the complex of these vignettes. The article is the first to address the issue of Dobuzhinsky’s appeal to the art of the Italian Renaissance. It is established that the Cathedral of Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Venice influenced the image of the greenhouse in the sketches of the scenery for the play based on the play A Month in the Village, while the portraits of Pietro della Fancesca and Sandro Botticelli influenced the portrait of actress Lydia Koreneva.