Fashion Illustration Art: Gloves for Every Season
Vsevolod Dobujinsky: c. 1940s-1950s

This item is sold.  It has been placed here in our online archives as a service for researchers and collectors.

Dobujinsky
Dobujinsky
Dobujinsky
Vsevolod Dobujinsky (1905-1988)
Gloves For Every Season
Lithuanian-American: c. 1940s-1950s
Signed lower left: “DOB”
Gouache on illustration board
14.5 x 12.5 inches, image
18.25 x 14 inches, overall
Provenance:  Estate of Mstislav Valerianovich Dobujinsky
Sold, please inquire as to the availability of similar items.

This original illustration art by graphic artist Vsevolod Dobujinsky shows gloves for each of four seasons, from an era when a fashionable woman wore hat and gloves when dressed up, no matter the temperature.  The whimsical arrangement shows a tree with a sprig representing one of the seasons and the corresponding glove on the opposite branch, from springtime at the bottom to winter at the top.  The color scheme is principally lavender, coral orange, mint green and black.  The work came from the estate of the artist’s father, a well-known artist associated with the Russian avant garde in the early 20th century.

This was preliminary artwork for an advertisement for Hutchins & Son of New York, London and Paris.  We have sold another version of this composition with the Hutchins name across the top and “Gloves for Every Season” written lower right.  The later version also changed the position of the gloves to thumbs pointing down and modified the hues.

Vsevolod Dobujinksy (sometimes spelled Dobuzhinsky) was the son of the well-known Russian painter, printmaker and scenographer Mstislav V. Dobujinsky (1875-1957), part of the avant garde circle in the early 20th century known as The World of Art, which included Leon Bakst and Serge Diaghilev.  Mstislav left Russia for Lithuania in 1924, and emigrated to the U.S. in 1939.  It seems likely that Vsevolod Dobujinksy went with him.  Vsevolod continued painting at least into the 1970s.

Reference:

“Mstislav Dobuzhinsky.”  Olga’s Gallery.  http://www.abcgallery.com/D/dobuzhinsky/dobuzhinskybio.html (28 February 2005).