Paris. Führer für die Weltstadt.

Paris. Führer für die Weltstadt.
Paris. New Paris Newspaper publishing company. 1928 320 p. There are a lot of ads and photo-inserts outside the pagination. No back cover. 

Mstislav Valerianovich Dobuzhinsky (1875, Novgorod — 1957, New York) was a Russian and Lithuanian artist, master of urban landscape, member of the creative association "World of Art", art critic, memoirist.

Born on August 2 (14), 1875 in Novgorod. Son of Lieutenant-General Valerian Petrovich Dobuzhinsky. He comes from an old Lithuanian family. After the birth of his son, his parents separated when his mother, an artist, singer and liberal left the family. The father took his son to be raised, who divided his entire childhood between loving parents, alternately living with one or the other. As a child, he lived with his father for three years in Chisinau, where he entered the second grade of the 2nd city gymnasium. At the age of 9, he first came to Vilnius. In 1889-1895, he studied at the Vilna 2nd Gymnasium. Then he studied in St. Petersburg at the Imperial School of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts (1885-1887), at the school of Anton Azhbe (Munich, 1899-1901) and with S. Holloshi (Nadbanya, Hungary). In 1901, he studied engraving under the guidance of Vasily Mate.

Participated in exhibitions since 1902. Member of the association "World of Art". Since 1906, he taught at the art school-studio of E. N. Zvantseva in St. Petersburg.One of the first to appreciate the talent of the Lithuanian artist M. K. Ciurlenis. 

In the first years of Soviet power, the artist actively works, participating in the design of street festivals in Petrograd and holding a number of responsible positions: a member of the Commission on Arts under the Council of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies, a member of the State Labor Workshops of Decorative Art, secretary of the Special Meeting on Arts. In October 1918, he was elected a scientific curator of the Hermitage. Dobuzhinsky takes part in the organization of the Vitebsk Art and Practical Institute, the Vitebsk Art Museum, the Museum of Icons of Old Vitebsk, in the organization of the Petrograd House of Arts, becomes the head of the artistic part of the Bolshoi Opera Theater. In 1923-1924, he traveled a lot, visiting Kaunas, Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, and Copenhagen. His solo exhibitions are held in Paris.

Over the years, quite a few publications have been published with illustrations by Dobuzhinsky: "The Stationmaster" by A. S. Pushkin (1905), "The Treasurer" by M. Yu. Lermontov (1913), "The New Plutarch" by M. A. Kuzmin (1918), "The Peasant Lady" by A. S. Pushkin (1919), "White Nights" by F. M. Dostoevsky (1921), "Poor Liza" by N. M. Karamzin (1921), "The Miserly Knight" by A. S. Pushkin (1921), "The Stupid Artist" by N. S. Leskov (1921), etc. He also successfully designed books for children: "The Swineherd" by G. H. Andersen (1917), "The Merry Alphabet" by N. Pavlova (1924), "Primus" by O. Mandelstam (1924). In 1921. the artist creates a series of lithographs "Petersburg in 1921". 

In 1924, with the assistance of Yuri Baltrushaitis, the artist took Lithuanian citizenship and left the USSR forever. For some time he lived in Riga, in 1926 he moved to Paris, where from 1926 to 1929 he worked on the design of performances in the theater of N. F. Baliev "The Bat", on the artistic design of the film "Fertility" based on the novel "Earth" by E. Zola (for the Paris company "Central Cinema"), participated in the organization of the exhibition "World of Art" (1927), taught at the Paris School of Decorative Art, founded by N. V. Globa. From the publishing house "Pleiad" receives an offer to repeat "White Nights" in lithography, but the project was never implemented. In 1929, the album "Biarritz, Schibert. Golf and Villas" (Biarritz, Chiberta. Le golf les villas), for which the artist made the cover, flyleaf, two illustrations, five vignettes and twenty graphic frames. At the suggestion of Vl. Narbut, for the publishing house "Land and Factory" creates illustrations for the book "Three Fat Men" by Yu. Olesha (1928). 

In 1929-1935, he lived in Kaunas, Lithuania. He taught at the Kaunas Art School, and in January 1931 became the chief artist of the Lithuanian State Theater and created scenography for 38 plays. He also opened a private school of painting there (1930-1933).

In 1938, he received an invitation from M. A. Chekhov to participate in the production of the play "Possessed" based on the novel "Demons" by F. M. Dostoevsky, on which he worked in England in the spring of 1939. In July of the same year, Dobuzhinsky left for the United States to continue working at the Chekhov Theater-Studio. Lives in New York. He also designs plays for the Metropolitan Opera, other theaters in America and Europe, and works for the cinema. He designs books: "Poems" by M. Y. Lermontov (1941, unpublished), "Lefty" (The Steel Flea) by N. S. Leskov (1943), "Count Nulin" by A. S. Pushkin (1943, unpublished), "Night Tavern" by I. A. Bunina (1946), "The Word about Igor's regiment" (1950). Creates a cycle of imaginary landscapes of besieged Leningrad (1943).  

The artist spends the last years of his life in Europe; he lives for a long time in Paris, Rome, London, and travels in Italy. Shortly before his death, he returns to the United States.

Mstislav Dobuzhinsky gave his last interview two days before his death, on November 19, 1957, to Radio Liberty correspondent Boris Orshansky.

He died on November 20, 1957 in New York at the home of his youngest son Vsevolod. He is buried in the Saint-Genevieve-des-Bois cemetery in Paris.