# Mir iskusstva Book Art

> The graphic idiom of the St Petersburg World of Art circle (journal 1898–1904, exhibitions until Paris 1927) and the book artists around it. Ivan Bilibin's state-printed, lithographed fairy tales set firmly outlined, flat-washed pictures and text inside folk-ornament borders drawn from lubki, crafts and icons; Benois and Somov revived the eighteenth century of Versailles and old Petersburg in vignettes and rococo scenes. Both branches made the book one ensemble of cover, headpiece, initial, plate and tailpiece, in watercolour, gouache or black ink rather than oil.

- Period: 1898–1927
- Where: Eastern Europe
- Origin: Saint Petersburg: the Mir iskusstva journal (first issue November 1898, last 1904) and its exhibitions; Ivan Bilibin's fairy-tale books for the Expedition for the Preparation of State Papers (commissioned 1899); Joseph Knebel's 'Gift Series' in Moscow (1906–1918); the group's last exhibition was held in Paris in 1927
- Branch: Craft & organic
- Also known as: World of Art, Bilibin style, Neo-Russian style (Bilibin's folklore branch), Russian Art Nouveau book art, Russian style moderne, Retrospectivism
- Page: https://stylogeny.com/styles/mir-iskusstva/

## Use it with care

This 'Russian' folk look is a refined, partly state-commissioned idiom of the imperial capital, assembled by professional artists from northern peasant crafts, lubki and icons: do not present it as timeless ethnic Russian folk art or as a neutral emblem of the Russian state, and keep icon-derived holy figures out of trivial uses. Its makers were not all Russian: Heorhiy Narbut, for example, became rector of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and designed the Ukrainian People's Republic's banknotes and stamps, so credit artists by their own identities. Benois (d. 1960) and Dobuzhinsky (d. 1957) remain in copyright in the EU and Russia (life plus 70 years, so at least until 2031 and 2028), while Bilibin (d. 1942), Somov (d. 1939) and Narbut (d. 1920) are in the public domain there: draw new borders, figures and lettering rather than reproducing their pages. Somov's Le Livre de la Marquise is explicitly erotic, above all the 1918 edition, so keep its plates out of children's or general-audience pastiche.

## How it works

- Design the book as one ensemble: plan cover, title page, lettering, borders, headpieces, initials, plates and tailpieces together under a single idea, and treat the illustration as equal to the text.
- Hold pictures and text pages inside a wide ornamental border or framed panel, and fill it with motifs taken from peasant crafts, icons and lubki, or with eighteenth-century garlands and vignettes.
- Draw figures with a firm, even contour in large, stately poses, and fill the outline with flat, nearly uniform washes so the line carries the form and the colour reproduces cleanly; or work in black ink alone, as in Somov's pen drawings for Le Livre de la Marquise and Dobuzhinsky's white lines scratched from a black ground.
- Look back rather than forward: quote seventeenth-century Muscovy and the folk tale, or the rococo and early classicism of eighteenth-century Petersburg, refining the source instead of copying its crudeness, often with a knowing, self-parodying wit.
- Letter titles and initials by hand in the manner of the age being quoted, and set the text as a calm block that the ornament surrounds.
- Work in pen, watercolour and gouache rather than oil, and stage scenes like a theatre set, with curtains, wings and an audience where the subject allows.

## Its design choices

Defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.

### Layout & composition
- [Framed panels](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/framed-panels/) (defining)
- [Central symmetry](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/central-symmetry/) (characteristic)
- [Classical text block](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/classical-text-block/) (characteristic)
- [Isolated object](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/isolated-object/) (occasional)

### Space & hierarchy
- [Measured density](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/measured-density/) (characteristic)
- [Sequential narrative](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/sequential-narrative/) (characteristic)
- [Repetition & rhythm](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/repetition-and-rhythm/) (characteristic)
- [Horror vacui](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/horror-vacui/) (occasional)
- [Illusion of depth](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/illusion-of-depth/) (occasional)

### Typography
- [Hand-lettering](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hand-lettering/) (defining)
- [Ornamented display](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/ornamented-display/) (characteristic)
- [All caps](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/all-caps/) (occasional)

### Colour
- [Flat fields](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-fields/) (characteristic)
- [Light ground](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/light-ground/) (characteristic)
- [Earth & mineral](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/earth-and-mineral/) (characteristic)
- [Full polychrome](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/full-polychrome/) (occasional)
- [Jewel & metallic](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/jewel-and-metallic/) (occasional)
- [Pastel](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pastel/) (occasional)
- [Monochrome](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/monochrome/) (occasional)

### Form & shape
- [Stylised figuration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/stylised-figuration/) (defining)
- [Biomorphic curves](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/biomorphic-curves/) (characteristic)
- [Naturalistic depiction](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/naturalistic-depiction/) (occasional)

### Surface & texture
- [Flat](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat/) (characteristic)
- [Paper & letterpress bite](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/paper-and-letterpress-bite/) (occasional)
- [Painterly brushwork](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/painterly-brushwork/) (occasional)

### Ornament
- [Borders & frames](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/borders-and-frames/) (defining)
- [Folk & sacred symbols](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/folk-and-sacred-symbols/) (characteristic)
- [Floral & vegetal](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/floral-and-vegetal/) (characteristic)
- [Abundant decoration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/abundant-decoration/) (characteristic)

### Imagery
- [Line illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/line-illustration/) (defining)
- [Painterly illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/painterly-illustration/) (characteristic)
- [Pattern & repeat](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pattern-and-repeat/) (occasional)

### Medium & production
- [Pen, brush & ink](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pen-brush-and-ink/) (characteristic)
- [Letterpress](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/letterpress/) (characteristic)
- [Lithography](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/lithography/) (characteristic)

### Tone & intent
- [Nostalgic & retro](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/nostalgic-and-retro/) (defining)
- [Romantic & sensual](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/romantic-and-sensual/) (characteristic)
- [Luxurious & glamorous](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/luxurious-and-glamorous/) (characteristic)
- [Playful & witty](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/playful-and-witty/) (occasional)
- [Ironic & self-aware](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/ironic-and-self-aware/) (occasional)

Avoids: Whiplash line, Modular grid, Misregistration & overprint, Grotesque & neo-grotesque, Straight photography, Ornament-free, Gradients, Visual tension

Palette: #efe6cf, #1b1a17, #b8342a, #c99a3a, #3e6b4f, #3d5a85

Typefaces: Ivan Bilibin's hand-drawn cover titles and illuminated initials in an Old Russian manner, drawn as part of the page (fairy-tale books for the Expedition for the Preparation of State Papers, 1899–1910), Typeset Cyrillic text in a single block inside an ornamental border, opened by an illuminated initial and closed by a tailpiece (Vasilisa Prekrasnaia, 1902)

Known for: Ivan Bilibin, Vasilisa Prekrasnaia (Vasilisa the Beautiful), text from Afanasyev's Russian folk tales, Expedition for the Preparation of State Papers, St Petersburg (1902; illustrations dated 1899–1900): text within an ornamental border, illuminated initials, head- and tailpieces; Ivan Bilibin, Pushkin's The Tale of Tsar Saltan (Expedition for the Preparation of State Papers, St Petersburg, 1905), with a lithographed cover, title, five full-page plates and six text illustrations; on its wave page the energy recalls Hokusai's woodcuts while the ornamental border evokes Russian folk art; Ivan Bilibin, Pushkin's The Tale of the Golden Cockerel (Expedition for the Preparation of State Papers, St Petersburg, 1910; edition 10,000), the last of his state-commissioned fairy-tale books; Mir iskusstva journal, St Petersburg (1898–1904; 350 × 272 mm), large-format issues carrying Bilibin's illustrations (I:11/12 and I:16/17, 1899; II:3/4, 1900; III:5, 1901; V:11, 1904) and his headpieces and tailpieces; Alexandre Benois, Azbuka v kartinakh (Alphabet in Pictures, 1904), a full-page colour picture for every letter, many staged like theatre scenes; Alexandre Benois, illustrations for Pushkin's The Bronze Horseman (1903); Konstantin Somov, Le Livre de la Marquise, an anthology of eighteenth-century French erotic poetry and prose, drawn for editions from 1907; St Petersburg edition by Golike & Wilborg (1918; edition 800); Heorhiy Narbut, Voina gribov (The War of the Mushrooms), Knebel's 'Gift Series', Moscow (1909)

## Where it comes from, and what it’s close to

- Grew out of: [Art Nouveau](https://stylogeny.com/styles/art-nouveau.md) (1890–1910)
- Influenced by: [Lubok Popular Print](https://stylogeny.com/styles/lubok.md) (1650–1920)
- Influenced by: [Arts & Crafts Movement](https://stylogeny.com/styles/arts-and-crafts.md) (1860–1920)
- Influenced by: [Japonisme](https://stylogeny.com/styles/japonisme.md) (1860–1910)
- Alike in its design choices: [Norwegian and Finnish National Romantic Graphics (Munthe & Karelianism)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/nordic-national-romanticism.md) (1880–1922), 77% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Celtic Revival Illumination & Lettering](https://stylogeny.com/styles/celtic-revival.md) (1861–1951), 76% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Bezalel School](https://stylogeny.com/styles/bezalel-school.md) (1906–1929), 75% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Armenian Manuscript Illumination](https://stylogeny.com/styles/armenian-illumination.md) (c. 862–1800), 70% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Mithila (Madhubani) Painting](https://stylogeny.com/styles/mithila-painting.md) (c. 1350–present), 68% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Persian Popular Narrative (Lithographs & Coffeehouse Painting)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/persian-popular-narrative.md) (1843–2012), 64% alike

## Sources

- University of Washington Libraries, exhibit 'Fairytales and the Five-Year Plan: Russian Children's Literature': 'Russian Art Nouveau: Mir Iskusstva & Style Moderne', on the book as an integrated work of art, the Westernising branch (Benois), which 'delighted in both the Rococo and neoclassical styles of the eighteenth century' of 'Peter the Great's Russia and Louis XIV's Versailles', the folklore branch 'focused on Russian folklore and the Neo-Russian style', the Russian name 'style moderne' for Art Nouveau and Benois's Azbuka v kartinakh of 1904 (https://content.lib.washington.edu/exhibits/russian-childrens-lit/3-artnouveau.html); 'Bilibin & Pushkin', on Bilibin joining the group in 1900, his admiration of Japanese prints, Morris, Crane and Beardsley, his 1902–1904 trips to northern Russia, the unified design of covers, title pages, typography, borders and vignettes in Tsar Saltan, 1905, and its wave page (p. 8), whose energy 'recalls woodcuts by the Japanese artist Hokusai, while its ornamental border evokes Russian folk art' (https://content.lib.washington.edu/exhibits/russian-childrens-lit/4-bilibin.html); 'Joseph Knebel's Publishing House', on the Gift Series (1906–1918) and Narbut's Voina gribov, 1909 (https://content.lib.washington.edu/exhibits/russian-childrens-lit/5-knebel.html); 'The Russian Lubok & the Illustrated Children's Book', on Bilibin collecting lubki and calling his work 'an old Russian style, derived from folk prints and old lubok-fairytales, but merely refined' (https://content.lib.washington.edu/exhibits/russian-childrens-lit/6-lubok.html)
- Van Abbemuseum, Pushkin and Bilibin, Skazka o zolotom petushke (Ekspeditsiia Zagotovleniia Gosudarstvennykh Bumag, St Petersburg, 1910; 256 × 326 mm, 12 pages, edition 10,000), on the 1899 commission, the series of nine books, his 'clear-cut outlines' that 'could accurately be transferred to printing plates' and colour 'in almost monochrome areas' suited to reproduction, and his study of Old Russian folk art and icons: https://ls.vanabbemuseum.nl/B/bilibin/pages/petushke1.htm
- Van Abbemuseum, Mir iskusstva (St Petersburg, 1899–1904; 350 × 272 mm), with Bilibin's illustrations in several issues: https://ls.vanabbemuseum.nl/B/bilibin/pages/1904mir.htm
- Van Abbemuseum, Konstantin Somov (ed.), Le livre de la Marquise (Golike et Wilborg, St Petersburg, 1918; 268 × 203 mm, 196 pages, edition 800): https://ls.vanabbemuseum.nl/S/somov/pages/1918livre.htm
- Getty Research Institute copy, via the Internet Archive: Bilibin, Vasilisa Prekrasnaia (Izdanie Ekspeditsii zagotovleniia gosudarstvennykh bumag, St Petersburg, 1902; 33 cm; 'Text within ornamental border; illuminated initials; head- and tail-pieces; ill. dated variously 1899-1900'): https://archive.org/details/gri_33125011156474/
- Wikipedia: 'Mir iskusstva' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mir_iskusstva), on the founders, the admiration of folk art and eighteenth-century rococo, masks, marionettes and self-parody, the preference for watercolour and gouache over oil, the publishing house of 1902 and the last exhibition in Paris in 1927
- Wikipedia: 'Мир искусства (журнал)' (https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Мир_искусства_(журнал)), on the first double issue of 9 November 1898 and the large-format issues; and 'Мир искусства (объединение)' (https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Мир_искусства_(объединение)), on retrospectivism, the revival of 1910 and the group's end by 1924
- Wikipedia: 'Ivan Bilibin' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Bilibin) and 'Билибин, Иван Яковлевич' (https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Билибин,_Иван_Яковлевич), on the 1899–1902 fairy-tale series, the influence of Old Russian art, Japanese prints and Renaissance woodcuts, his headpieces, tailpieces and covers for journals such as Mir iskusstva, and his death in Leningrad on 7 February 1942
- Wikipedia: 'Konstantin Somov' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konstantin_Somov), on the over 120 ink drawings, 'some quite explicit', for Le Livre de la Marquise (1907–1919), the most explicit post-1917 edition of 800 copies and his death in 1939; 'Alexandre Benois' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandre_Benois), on The Bronze Horseman (1903), the Alphabet in Pictures (1904) and his death in Paris on 9 February 1960; 'Mstislav Dobuzhinsky' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mstislav_Dobuzhinsky), on White Nights (1923) and his death in New York on 20 November 1957; and 'Heorhiy Narbut' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heorhiy_Narbut), on his rectorship of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts, the Ukrainian People's Republic's banknotes and stamps and his death in Kyiv on 23 May 1920
- Arenberg Auctions, lot 341: Pushkin and Bilibin, The Tale of Tsar Saltan ([St Petersburg, Expedition for the Preparation of State Papers], 1905 [1906]; oblong 4to), 'the beautiful lithographed illustrations of I. Bilibin', a lithographed cardboard cover, 'a cover, a title, 5 large full-page plates and 6 smaller in text ill.; some ornaments printed in blue': https://my.arenbergauctions.com/catalogue/detail/13622
- Don State Public Library (DGPB), Centre for Book Monuments of the Rostov Region, exhibition catalogue 'Akvilon nad severnoi stolitsei' (comp. N. V. Borodulina, Rostov-on-Don, 2022): Dostoevsky, Belye nochi, drawings by M. V. Dobuzhinsky (Petersburg: Akvilon, 1923; 78 pp.), drawn in grattage, white lines scratched into ink-covered paper or board; cover, title page, 8 full-page illustrations, 5 headpieces and 4 tailpieces reproduced by zincography; edition 1,000: https://www.dspl.ru/upload/novosti/documents/Аквилон%20над%20северной%20столицей_каталог%20выставки.pdf
- Wikipedia: 'List of countries' copyright lengths' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries%27_copyright_lengths): life plus 70 years in the EU and in Russia (life plus 74 for authors who fought or worked during the Great Patriotic War)

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