«I DEMAND ATTENTION AND LOVE FOR MYSELF…»
THE STORY OF ONE BOOK: FROM A DREAM TO A PRINT RUN
Exhibition and album presentation marking the 140th anniversary of Boris Grigoriev
Graphic series for Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel «The Brothers Karamazov»
14.03.26 – 26.03.26
Fabergé Museum, St. Petersburg
Press release
The Cultural and Historical Foundation «The Link of Times» and the Fabergé Museum present exhibition and publishing projects dedicated to the graphic series by the great Russian artist Boris Grigoriev for Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel "The Brothers Karamazov." The graphic series of 58 sheets will be exhibited from March 14 to 26, 2026, in the White Column Hall of the Fabergé Museum, and will also be published as a separate album accompanied by texts from the novel.
The new edition can be purchased both at the museum shop on the ground floor and in the online store with delivery (within Russia).
The idea of the project is a tribute to the artist and the fulfillment of his cherished dream of publishing his works, which the Cultural and Historical Foundation «The Link of Times» realized in the year of Boris Grigoriev's 140th anniversary.
Researchers believe that the author began work on the series of drawings for the novel «The Brothers Karamazov» in 1916 and continued it for more than ten years. In 1933, the cycle was shown twice at exhibitions in the United States. Boris Grigoriev dreamed of having the illustrations published as a separate edition and held negotiations about this. However, the works were bought for a private collection, and the book never came to be.
In 2007, the works were put up for auction at Sotheby's, where they were acquired by the Cultural and Historical Foundation «The Link of Times»; they were brought to Russia and first shown to the public at the Fabergé Museum in St. Petersburg at the exhibition «The First Master in the World» in 2023.
In the «Karamazov» cycle, Boris Grigoriev appears as an attentive reader of Dostoevsky, paying attention not only to the description of the setting and the appearance of the characters, but also sensitively conveying the emotional intensity of individual scenes and the nature of the relationships between the characters. A.N. Benois called these works «congenial to Dostoevsky». According to the journalist Leonid Severny, Grigoriev himself admitted that he «did not paint illustrations. The Brothers Karamazov are my brothers. This is not Dostoevsky, this is Russia».
The style of the drawings in the cycle, created in the technique of gouache with the use of watercolor and graphite pencil, is nervously expressive, impulsively careless. It is also characteristic of other works from the early 1930s connected with the theme of Russia: the famous cycles «Raseya» and «The Faces of Russia» were created over many years and brought the master well-deserved fame. A distinctive feature of the author's creative credo was the combination of «two realms of art»: he felt himself to be not only an artist but also a writer. Perhaps this is precisely why these works by Grigoriev seem to push beyond the limits of the literary text.
As part of the project, from March 17 to 24, the Fabergé Museum will host a lecture series dedicated to the novel «The Brothers Karamazov» and its interpretations. The lecturers will be teachers from the Faculty of Philology of St. Petersburg State University and staff of the St. Petersburg Literary and Memorial Museum of F.M. Dostoevsky.
Address: St. Petersburg, Fontanka River Embankment, 21 (Fabergé Museum)
Exhibition opening hours: daily from 10:00 to 20:45, except on days when lectures are held — March 17, 19, and 24 — from 10:00 to 17:45.
Age restriction: 0+
