LEON BAKST (1866-1924)

April 17 (May 9), 1866 (Grodno) - December 27, 1924 (Paris).

Painter, graphic artist, stage designer, artist of arts and crafts, art theorist.

In the early 1890s he studied watercolor technique under Benois.

In 1887-1890 he worked at the studio of tutorials and games of A.N. Kanaev. In 1888-1892 he illustrated children`s books for the publishing house of A.A. Homushin and A.F. Devrien. In 1890-1893 he worked for the magazines "The Artist" and "St. Petersburg Life". In 1890 he met A.N. Benois and became a member of the self-education circle, from which the "World of Art" association arose. In 1891 he visited Germany, Italy, Spain and France.

From 1893 to 1899 he stayed in Paris for long periods every year. From 1893 to 1896 he attended the Studio of J.-L. Jerome and Academia of R. Julien, took lessons with A. Edelfelt.

From 1901 he worked for the theater: he designed for Hermitage (1902, 1903), Alexandrinsky (1902, 1904), Mariinsky (1903) and other theaters in St. Petersburg, the troupe of Ida Rubinstein (1904) and Anna Pavlova (1910s). In 1909-1918 and 1921-1921 he was the artist of the Russian Seasons. P. Diaghilev in Paris (from 1911 - artistic director of the entreprise). He also collaborated with European and American theatrical companies. He performed the scenery for the play "Hippolytus" by Euripides (1902), the ballets "The Puppet Fairy" by J. Beyer (1903), "The Queen of the Dolls" (1902), "The Caster of the Arts" (1903), "The Caster of the Arts" (1908) and "The Queen of the Arts" (1908). The ballets "The Doll Fairy" by J. Bayer (1903), "Scheherazade" by N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov (1910), "The Firebird" by Igor Stravinsky (1910), "Narcissus" by N.N. Cherepnin (1911), "Daphnis and Chloé" by M. Ravel (1912), "The Sleeping Beauty" by P.I. Tchaikovsky (1916), the choreographic staging "Cleopatra" on the music of the ballet "Egyptian Nights" by A.S. Arensky (1909) and others.

In 1903 he decorated the interior of the boudoir for the art enterprise-exhibition "Modern Art"; the interiors of the house of collector A.A. Korovin in Petersburg; he also made sketches of vases for the Imperial Porcelain Factory.

Since 1890 he participated in exhibitions. He was a founding member of the "World of Art" association (1898-1921 with interruptions), member of the Union of Russian Artists (1903-1910) and Autumn Salon in Paris (1907-1911 with interruptions). He exhibited his works at exhibitions: Blanc et noir (1890, 1891), IAH (1890-1897, with interruptions), Society of Russian watercolors (1891-1897, with interruptions), Society for the Encouragement of Artists (1892), St. Petersburg Society of

St. Petersburg Society for the Encouragement of Artists (1895), the Leonardo da Vinci Society (1906), the Jewish Society for the Encouragement of Artists (1917) in St. Petersburg - Petrograd,

The Moscow Society of Art Lovers (1896-1910, with interruptions), the Munich Secession (1898, 1899), the Northern Circle of Lovers of Fine Arts in Vologda (1909). Participated in international exhibitions in Berlin (1896), Venice (1907, 1914), the World Exhibition in Rome (1911), All-Russian Industrial and Agricultural Exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod (1896) and others. He had solo exhibitions in Paris (1893, 1911), London (1912, 1913, 1917), Berlin (1913), New York (1913, 1914, 1920, 1922), Zurich (1913), Boston, Buffalo, Philadelphia (all - 1914), Chicago (1914, 1923).

Bakst was an outstanding master of Russian graphic art in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In general, his creative evolution can be represented as a movement from line to color. "From the graphic artist I have become a pure painter," he wrote to the critic and collector P.D. Ettinger in 1910. "The form is easier to feel and synthesize through the paint, more authentic and real comes out," he wrote to the artist AP Ostroumova-Lebedeva in the same year. His works are characterized by "generosity" of color and form: light brushstroke, flexible expressive line, the contrast of color combinations. His works for the theater demonstrated a new approach to the creation of a theatrical costume: entertaining, showing the plasticity of the human body, and not only serving as a means of identification of the character and ornamentation.

His work is represented in major museum collections, including the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Russian Museum, the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts and others.