Mstislav Dobuzhinsky, Jewish Exodus, 1905

Charcoal on paper

Inv. no. ab_31539

World of Art group artist Mstislav Dobuzhinsky (1875-1957) is best known for Symbolist portraits and urban landscapes recording the rapid changes wrought by industrial and technological developments. This 1905 urban landscape with multistory apartment buildings and the smokestack of a factory serves as the backdrop for a solemn procession of Jewish families fleeing anti-Semitic violence. The central figure carrying a Torah scroll is particularly striking and suggests that it is an entire community departing, taking with them their most precious possessions. By 1905, the year in which this drawing was made, Jewish communities had been under frequent attack, often blamed for political upheaval in the wake of the unsuccessful Russo-Japanese war, a struggle for political representation, and economic failures. These violent riots assumed a mass character; dozens of incidents throughout the Pale of Settlement resulted in hundreds of deaths. This violence and terror accelerated Jewish emigration, creating scenes like this.

Dobuzhinsky’s father directly observed such events in the city of Brest-Litovsk (in present-day Belarus). Lt. General Valerian Dobuzhinsky (1844-1921) commanded the garrison there between 1903 and 1905. Dobuzhinsky recalled his father’s anger at these events in his memoirs, writing that after one such incident, his father “sent a detachment of soldiers to stop the outrages … the frightened Jews, seeking protection, fled to take refuge in his hotel…”