 | Leon BAKST 1866 — 1924Лев БАКСТ • Лев Самуилович БАКСТLeon Bakst (Lev Samoilovich Rosenberg) was born in a middle class Jewish family in Grodno, Belarus, in 1866. He studied at St. Petersburg Art Academy. He started his artistic career as an illustrator for magazines but changed his mind when he met Aleksandr Benois. He traveled through Europe and came in contact with European artists. After his return to St Petersburg, he became a court artist. In 1899 together with Benois and Serge Diaghilev, he founded the group World of Art (Mir Iskusstva). Bakst did his first stage decorations at the court Hermitage theatre in 1900 and later at Imperial theatres. In 1906 the artist moved to Paris where he worked on stage and costume design for Diaghilev’s ballet troop “Russian seasons”. Bakst’s first full exercise was decorations for ballet Kleopatra (1909), ballets Shehrezade and Carnival (1910), Narcisse (1911), Daphne and Chloe (1912). Since 1919 Bakst lived in Paris. Bakst’s decorations in London for Sleeping beauty in 1921 are considered to be the height of his talent. |
