St. Petersburg was a favorite subject for artists of the World of Art, they turned to it constantly, as if confirming their commitment to the city. Anna Ostroumova-Lebedeva in the series St. Petersburg (1922) and Mstislav Dobuzhinsky in St. Petersburg in 1921 (1923) interpreted this subject in tune with that time, each artist presenting very personal view and perception of the city.
In his approach to St.Petersburg Mstislav Dobuzhinsky is close to Dostoevsky, he shows city outskirts and dead-end streets with rickety lamps, damp “well”-courtyards, and winding "channels of dark water, with trembling and crumbling reflections of tenement buildings." The artist shows the city as dark and depressing, almost suffering, opening to the prying eyes something that should be hidden. As if by contrast, Anna Ostroumova-Lebedeva sees and portrays a very different St. Petersburg – slender classical, with large sqares and majestic waves of the broad river.
Image of the city is imbued with her sharp lyricism; broad panorama opens from a bird's eye view, allowing the glance to move freely. Petersburg in her lithographs is detached from everyday life, being perfect and eternal in its features. Thus the very same city appears to the beholder in two entirely different ways - either ordinary, humdrum and imperceptible, or grand, sublime and happy.