# Mstislav Valerianovic Dobuzinskij artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/mstislav-valerianovic-dobuzinskij/
Profile generated: 2026-05-06T19:26:00.000Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1875-08-14
- Death date: 1957-11-20
- Nationality: Russian, American, Lithuanian
- Movements: Mir iskusstva (World of Art), Russian Symbolism
- Common media: oil painting, watercolor, gouache, etching, graphic art (prints), pastel, drawing

## About Mstislav Valerianovic Dobuzinskij

Mstislav Valerianovich Dobuzhinsky (1875–1957) was a Russian-born painter, graphic artist, and stage designer whose atmospheric cityscapes capture the dramatic transformation of early twentieth-century urban life. Born in Veliky Novgorod and trained in St. Petersburg and Western Europe, he became a distinctive voice among Russian modernist artists, blending Symbolist mood with precise architectural observation. Beyond painting and printmaking, Dobuzhinsky was a prolific book illustrator, theater designer, and editorial cartoonist whose work for Diaghilev's Ballet Russe brought his vision to international audiences. He emigrated in 1924, eventually settling in the United States, where he continued working until his death in Massapequa, New York. His legacy spans oils, watercolors, etchings, gouaches, and stage designs, with works held by institutions including the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

## Common works and media

Collectors are most likely to encounter Dobuzhinsky through his etchings and lithographs depicting urban architecture and city views, particularly of St. Petersburg. Gouaches and watercolors of cityscapes also appear regularly. His designs for theater productions, including costume and set studies, circulate in the performing-arts design market. Book illustrations and editorial drawings from both the Russian and American periods represent another accessible category. Oil paintings are less common at auction and tend to be more significant when they surface.

## Market and appraisal context

Dobuzhinsky maintains a consistent but low-volume presence at auction, with 30 recorded lots over an 18-year span (2007–2025) and 20 carrying realized prices. Ten named auction houses have offered his work, ranging from blue-chip specialists (Christie's, MacDougall's) to regional European firms (Louiza Auktion & Associés, Osenat, Rouillac, Gonnelli Casa d'Aste, Galerie Moenius) and Russian-art-focused houses (Hermitage Fine Art, Hammersite). Price dispersion is wide: the interquartile range falls between approximately €1,000 and €2,500, but a notable outlier reached £20,800 at MacDougall's in 2011 for an oil titled 'Square in Naples.' The lower end includes prints and small works on paper around €300–€600. Recent annual volume holds steady at roughly four lots per year, indicating modest but reliable liquidity. Works are offered predominantly in EUR and GBP, with occasional CHF and USD lots. The market for Dobuzhinsky is anchored by his St. Petersburg and Baltic cityscapes, with theater designs forming a recognizable secondary segment.

## Auction-house-backed market evidence

Dobuzhinsky maintains a consistent but low-volume presence at auction, with 30 recorded lots over an 18-year span (2007–2025) and 20 carrying realized prices. Ten named auction houses have offered his work, ranging from blue-chip specialists (Christie's, MacDougall's) to regional European firms (Louiza Auktion & Associés, Osenat, Rouillac, Gonnelli Casa d'Aste, Galerie Moenius) and Russian-art-focused houses (Hermitage Fine Art, Hammersite). Price dispersion is wide: the interquartile range falls between approximately €1,000 and €2,500, but a notable outlier reached £20,800 at MacDougall's in 2011 for an oil titled 'Square in Naples.' The lower end includes prints and small works on paper around €300–€600. Recent annual volume holds steady at roughly four lots per year, indicating modest but reliable liquidity. Works are offered predominantly in EUR and GBP, with occasional CHF and USD lots. The market for Dobuzhinsky is anchored by his St. Petersburg and Baltic cityscapes, with theater designs forming a recognizable secondary segment.

### Appraisal notes

Appraisily would use these auction records as comparable-sale anchors, weighting them against the specific work's medium, dimensions, signature, condition, provenance, and edition details. Oil paintings of cityscapes from the Russian period (pre-1924) are the strongest value tier; the £20,800 MacDougall's result for 'Square in Naples' sets a reference ceiling, though it represents a single outlier. Works on paper — watercolors, gouaches, drawings — cluster in the €1,000–€2,500 range and are the most frequently traded category. Etchings and prints trade below €500 when unspecialized. Theater-design studies (costume and set designs) are catalogued separately by performing-arts specialists and typically fall between prints and paintings. Several lots in the record carry 'Attribué à' qualifiers, so authentication through catalogue raisonné references, signature comparison, and provenance documentation is essential before pricing. A formal appraisal should also account for the currency mix in the record set and normalize prices to a single currency at the appraisal date's exchange rate.

### Valuation factors

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### Collector notes

- Prints and etchings are the most accessible entry point, typically trading below €600 at European houses like Osenat and Gonnelli Casa d'Aste.
- Original watercolors and gouaches of cityscapes — especially St. Petersburg and Baltic views — are the most frequently traded mid-tier category, clustering around €1,000–€2,250.
- Oil paintings are uncommon at auction; when they surface at a specialist house like MacDougall's, they can reach five figures. The ceiling appears to be around £20,000–£21,000 for a strong subject.
- Several lots in the record carry 'Attribué à' designation. Collectors should verify full attribution before purchase, as attributed works may trade at a significant discount to fully documented pieces.
- The same work ('Vue de Riga, 1923') appeared at Louiza Auktion & Associés at least four times between 2022 and 2024, suggesting possible difficulty finding a buyer or consignor re-offering. This may indicate soft demand for certain attributed works.
- Theater and costume designs — such as the 'Les Cosaques De Platov à Paris' studies offered at Hammersite — appeal to a specialist performing-arts collector base and may not track the same price trajectory as paintings.
- Auction volume is modest (roughly four lots per year), so collectors seeking specific subjects or periods may need patience. Conversely, this scarcity can support value retention for high-quality pieces.

### Market caveats

- Price statistics span multiple currencies (EUR, GBP, CHF, USD) and are not currency-normalized in the source data; direct comparison requires exchange-rate adjustment.
- Several lots have no realized price recorded, indicating they may have been bought in (unsold) or the price was not reported. The effective liquidity may be lower than the raw lot count suggests.
- At least four lots carry 'Attribué à' (attributed to) qualifiers rather than firm attribution, meaning the confirmed-attribution price pool is smaller than the full record set.
- Lot categories are not provided in the auction records, so medium and subject classification is inferred from lot titles only.
- The auction record is drawn exclusively from the Appraisily auction-record index; results from Russian domestic auction houses or private sales are not represented and may contain additional comparables.
- The top price (£20,800 for 'Square in Naples' at MacDougall's, 2011) is a single outlier nearly ten times the median. Appraisals should not anchor on this result without confirming the work's exceptional qualities.

### Market evidence sources

- undefined: https://appraisily.com/api/scraper-search/artists/mstislav-valerianovic-dobuzinskij/seo-profile?recentLimit=24&relatedLimit=0

## Appraisily data basis

This artist page combines identity research drawn from Getty ULAN, VIAF, the Library of Congress authority file, the RKD Netherlands Institute for Art History, and MoMA collection records with publicly available auction and institutional data. When available, Appraisily incorporates auction-house lot records, realized prices, sale dates, and comparable sales to support appraisal context.

## Sources

- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q972018
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mstislav_Dobuzhinsky
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500120586
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/24869402/
- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n83067475
- The Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/artists/23315
- RKD - Netherlands Institute for Art History: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/23382