Dobuzhinsky Mstislav is a painter, graphic artist, theater artist, and art critic.

He was born in Novgorod. In 1889-1895 he studied at the Vilna 2nd gymnasium. Then from 1885 to 1887, he studied in St. Petersburg at the Imperial School of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts. After that, he went to Munich and studied there from 1899 to 1901 at the school of Anton Azhbe. He had lessons under S. Hollosi (Nagybánya, Hungary). In 1901 he studied etching under Basil Mathe.

Convinced that modernity is spiritless, ugly, and poisoned by mercantilism, he believed that only the artist-creator, the heir of human culture, can return the lost harmony to the world, preserve beauty, and establish its laws in art and life. The museum exposition presents the work Illustration of the fairy tale of G.H. Andersen The Swineherd. The special accuracy of the composition, exquisite lines, delicacy of laconic color spots, and the theatricality of the image and poses of the characters demonstrate the creative principles of the World of Art, in which Dobuzhinsky was an active participant.