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Léon Bakst (russian: Леон (Лев) Николаевич Бакст, Leon (Lev) Nikolaevich Bakst) – born as Leyb-Khaim Izrailevich (later Samoylovich) Rosenberg, Лейб-Хаим Израилевич (Самойлович) Розенберг (27 January (8 February) 1866 – 28 December 1924) was a Russian
painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...
and scene and costume designer of
Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
origin. He was a member of the Sergei Diaghilev circle and the
Ballets Russes The Ballets Russes () was an itinerant ballet company begun in Paris that performed between 1909 and 1929 throughout Europe and on tours to North and South America. The company never performed in Russia, where the Revolution disrupted society. ...
, for which he designed exotic, richly coloured sets and
costume Costume is the distinctive style of dress or cosmetic of an individual or group that reflects class, gender, profession, ethnicity, nationality, activity or epoch. In short costume is a cultural visual of the people. The term also was tradition ...
s. He designed the décor for such productions as ''Carnaval'' (1910), ''Spectre de la rose'' (1911), ''Daphnis and Chloe'' (1912), ''The Sleeping Princess'' (1921) and others.


Early life

Leyb-Khaim Izrailevich (later Samoylovich) Rosenberg was born in Grodno, into a middle-class Jewish family. As his grandfather was an exceptional tailor, the Tsar gave him a very good position, and he had a huge and wonderful house in Saint Petersburg. Later, when Leyb's parents moved to the capital, the boy Leyb would visit his grandfather's house every Saturday. He said that he had been very impressed as a youth by that house, always returning with pleasure. At the young age of twelve, Lejb won a drawing contest and decided to become a painter. However, the parents disapproved of it and even threw away his paints. In several years the parents divorced and started new families, it became impossible to live with a step-mother, so the four siblings separated and rented their own place. As the eldest, Lejb was in charge of two sisters and brother, he 'took all kinds of painting work'. After graduating from gymnasium, he studied at the
St. Petersburg Academy of Arts The Russian Academy of Arts, informally known as the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, was an art academy in Saint Petersburg, founded in 1757 by the founder of the Imperial Moscow University Ivan Shuvalov under the name ''Academy of the Thre ...
as a noncredit student, because he had failed the entry. He also worked part-time as a book illustrator, gaining admission into the Imperial Academy in 1883. At the time of his first exhibition (1889) he took the surname of ''Bakst'', though the origin of the pseudonym is still unclear. There are at least three versions, according to the main one, his mother's grandmother had the maiden name ''Bakster''. Alexander Benois, a life-long friend of Leon, recalled that 'Leo gave a prolonged and confusing explanation that the surname was taken after some of distant relatives'. At the beginning of the 1890s, Bakst exhibited his works with the Society of
Watercolour Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to ...
ists. From 1893 to 1897 he lived in Paris, where he studied at the
Académie Julian The Académie Julian () was a private art school for painting and sculpture founded in Paris, France, in 1867 by French painter and teacher Rodolphe Julian (1839–1907) that was active from 1868 through 1968. It remained famous for the number ...
. He still often visited
Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
. After the mid-1890s, Bakst became a member of the circle of writers and artists formed by Sergei Diaghilev and Benois,Бакст Л. С.
/ref> who in 1899 founded the influential periodical '' Mir iskusstva'', meaning "World of Art". His graphics for this publication brought him fame.


Career

Bakst continued painting, producing portraits of Filipp Malyavin (1899), Vasily Rozanov (1901),
Andrei Bely Boris Nikolaevich Bugaev ( rus, Бори́с Никола́евич Буга́ев, p=bɐˈrʲis nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ bʊˈɡajɪf, a=Boris Nikolayevich Bugayev.ru.vorb.oga), better known by the pen name Andrei Bely or Biely ( rus, Андр� ...
(1905), Zinaida Gippius (1906). He also worked as an art teacher for the children of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia. In 1902, he took a commission from
Tsar Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East and South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" in the European medieval sense of the ter ...
Nicholas II to paint Admiral Avellan and Russian sailors arriving in Paris, a painting he started there, during the celebrations from the 17 to 25 October 1893. However, it took him 8 years to finish this work. In 1898, he showed his works in the Diaghilev-organized ''First Exhibition of Russian and Finnish Artists''; in ''World of Art'' exhibitions, as well as the
Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...
''
Secession Secession is the withdrawal of a group from a larger entity, especially a political entity, but also from any organization, union or military alliance. Some of the most famous and significant secessions have been: the former Soviet republics l ...
'', exhibitions of the ''Union of Russian Artists'', etc. During the Russian Revolution of 1905, Bakst worked for the magazines ''Zhupel'', ''Adskaya Pochta'', , and ', then for an art magazine called '' Apollon''. Beginning in 1909, Bakst worked mostly as a stage-designer, designing sets for Greek tragedies. In 1908, he gained attention as a scene-painter for Diaghilev with the
Ballets Russes The Ballets Russes () was an itinerant ballet company begun in Paris that performed between 1909 and 1929 throughout Europe and on tours to North and South America. The company never performed in Russia, where the Revolution disrupted society. ...
. He produced scenery for ''Cleopatra'' (1909), ''
Scheherazade Scheherazade () is a major female character and the storyteller in the frame narrative of the Middle Eastern collection of tales known as the '' One Thousand and One Nights''. Name According to modern scholarship, the name ''Scheherazade'' der ...
'' (1910), ''
Carnaval Carnival is a Catholic Christian festive season that occurs before the liturgical season of Lent. The main events typically occur during February or early March, during the period historically known as Shrovetide (or Pre-Lent). Carnival ty ...
'' (1910), ''Narcisse'' (1911), '' Le Spectre de la Rose'' (1911), '' L'après-midi d'un faune'' (1912) and '' Daphnis et Chloé'' (1912).Mikotowicz, Thomas J. "Bakst, Léon". In Thomas J. Mikotowicz, ''Theatrical designers: An International Biographic Dictionary''. New York: Greenwood, 1992. . p. 17. During this time, Bakst lived in western Europe because, as a Jew, he did not have the right to live permanently outside the Pale of Settlement in the Russian Empire. File:Cleopatra ballet by Bakst 08.jpg, For '' Cléopâtre'' by Mikhail Fokine; 1910. File:Harvard Theatre Collection - Bakst, MS Thr 414.4 (9).jpg, For '' Daphnis et Chloé'' by
Maurice Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In ...
; 1912, watercolour on paper, 19 × 27 cm, Houghton Library. File:La Pisanella by L. Bakst 06.jpg, For '' La Pisanelle où la Mort parfumée'' by Gabriele D'Annunzio; 1913, pencil, watercolour and gouache on cardboard, 24 × 39 cm, private collection. File:Sleeping Beauty by L. Bakst 04.jpg, '' The Sleeping Beauty'' by
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...
; 1921, pencil and watercolour on paper, 48 × 67 cm, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum.
File:Negro boy by L.Bakst (1910, MAGMA).jpg, For the Negro Boy in ''
Scheherazade Scheherazade () is a major female character and the storyteller in the frame narrative of the Middle Eastern collection of tales known as the '' One Thousand and One Nights''. Name According to modern scholarship, the name ''Scheherazade'' der ...
'' by
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov . At the time, his name was spelled Николай Андреевичъ Римскій-Корсаковъ. la, Nicolaus Andreae filius Rimskij-Korsakov. The composer romanized his name as ''Nicolas Rimsk ...
; 1910. File:Léon Bakst 001.jpg, For the Firebird in '' The Firebird''; 1910. File:Le Dieu Bleu Nijinsky.jpg, For The Blue God in '' Le Dieu bleu'' by
Reynaldo Hahn Reynaldo Hahn (; 9 August 1874 – 28 January 1947) was a Venezuelan-born French composer, conductor, music critic, and singer. He is best known for his songs – ''mélodies'' – of which he wrote more than 100. Hahn was born in Caracas b ...
; 1911. File:Josephslegende by L.Bakst 08.jpg, For '' Josephslegende'' by Hugo von Hofmannsthal and
Harry Graf Kessler Harry Clemens Ulrich Graf von Kessler (23 May 1868 – 30 November 1937) was an Anglo-German count, diplomat, writer, and patron of modern art. English translations of his diaries "Journey to the Abyss" (2011) and "Berlin in Lights" (1971) rev ...
; 1914, private collection. File:Masqued man by L.Bakst.jpg, For the Masked Man in '' The Good-Humoured Ladies'' by
Léonide Massine Leonid Fyodorovich Myasin (russian: Леони́д Фёдорович Мя́син), better known in the West by the French transliteration as Léonide Massine (15 March 1979), was a Russian choreographer and ballet dancer. Massine created the w ...
; 1917. File:La boutique fantastique by L. Bakst 09.jpg, For the Puppet Girl in ''
La Boutique fantasque ''La Boutique fantasque'', also known as ''The Magic Toyshop'' or ''The Fantastic Toyshop'', is a ballet in one act conceived by Léonide Massine, who devised the choreography for a libretto written with the artist André Derain, a pioneer of Fau ...
'' by
André Derain André Derain (, ; 10 June 1880 – 8 September 1954) was a French artist, painter, sculptor and co-founder of Fauvism with Henri Matisse. Biography Early years Derain was born in 1880 in Chatou, Yvelines, Île-de-France, just outside Paris. In ...
; 1919. File:Leon Bakst - Peasant woman Costume design for the Vaudeville Old Moscow, 1922.jpg, For the Russian Peasant Woman in '' Old Moscow''; 1922. File:Ida Rubinstein's costume for Phaedra by L.Bakst (1923, MAGMA) 2.jpg, For
Ida Rubinstein Ida Lvovna Rubinstein (russian: И́да Льво́вна Рубинште́йн; – 20 September 1960) was a Russian dancer, actress, art patron and Belle Époque figure. She performed with Diaghilev's Ballets Russes from 1909 to 1911 an ...
as
Phaedra Phaedra may refer to: Mythology * Phaedra (mythology), Cretan princess, daughter of Minos and Pasiphaë, wife of Theseus Arts and entertainment * ''Phaedra'' (Alexandre Cabanel), an 1880 painting Film * ''Phaedra'' (film), a 1962 film by ...
in '' Phèdre'' by Racine; 1923, Museum of Avant-Garde Mastery.
Despite being known for his work as a stage designer, art was also commissioned by various English families during the
Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unit ...
era. During this time, he produced such works as the Sleeping Beauty series for James and Dorothy de Rothschild at Waddesdon Manor in 1913. The story is depicted in seven panels that line the walls of an oval, theatrical styled "Bakst room" in the
Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-e ...
manor house. During his visits to Saint Petersburg, he taught in ''Zvantseva's school'', where one of his students was Marc Chagall (1908–1910). Bakst described Chagall as a favorite, because when told to do something, he would listen carefully, but then he would take his paint and his brushes and do something completely different from the assignment. In 1914, Bakst was elected a member of the
Imperial Academy of Arts The Russian Academy of Arts, informally known as the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, was an art academy in Saint Petersburg, founded in 1757 by the founder of the Imperial Moscow University Ivan Shuvalov under the name ''Academy of the Thr ...
. Bakst's comprehensive, many-sided talent showed itself in various areas — he worked as a designer of clothes, set decorations, interiors, textile, etc. Apart from a series of interior designs for the Rothschilds, he also designed exhibitions for ‘ Mir Iskusstva’ society and occupied a post of a furniture and interior designer at ‘Sovremennoe Iskusstvo’ (rus. ‘Modern Art’). American silk industry businessman Arthur Selig invited Bakst to create textile design, their collaboration had great success. During this period his work was widely shown in the United States. Martin Birnbaum, manager of the Berlin Photographic Company in New York City, organized an exhibition of Bakst's work in 1913 in New York that then traveled to Detroit (1913), Buffalo (1914), Cincinnati (1914), Chicago (1914) and Montreal (1914). After the Revolution of 1917 Leon's sister died from hunger in Russia. When Bakst received the news, he suffered a nervous breakdown, becoming so ill that he couldn't tolerate any irritants such as light, noise, or touch. His servant, Linda, exploited his condition to steal his money — she took all the honoraria that came to the house and intimidated the artist, forcing him to include her and her husband as heirs to his will. By chance he managed to send a note to an influential friend and patron Alice Warder Garrett (1877–1952), an art philanthropist, who helped his sister Sofia rescue Leon. They first met in Paris in 1914, when Mrs. Garrett was accompanying her diplomat husband in Europe, Bakst soon depended upon Garrett as both a confidante and agent. In 1922, Bakst broke off his relationship with Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes. During this year, he visited
Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...
and, specifically
Evergreen House Evergreen Museum & Library is a historic house museum and research library in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It is located between the campuses of the Notre Dame of Maryland University and Loyola University Maryland. It is operated by Johns ...
— the residence of his American friend Alice Garrett. Garrett became Bakst's representative in the United States upon her return home in 1920, organizing two exhibitions of the artist's work at New York's Knoedler Gallery, as well as subsequent traveling shows. When in Baltimore, Bakst re-designed the dining room of Evergreen into a shocking acidic yellow and 'Chinese' red confection. The artist transformed the house's small c. 1885 gymnasium into a colourfully Modernist private theatre. This is believed to be the only extant private theatre designed by Bakst. Léon Bakst was also a prolific writer, his literary legacy in three languages includes novels, numerous publications in magazines, critics, essays, letters to friends and colleagues. Bakst died on 27 December 1924, in a clinic in Rueil Malmaison, near Paris, from
lung The lungs are the primary organs of the respiratory system in humans and most other animals, including some snails and a small number of fish. In mammals and most other vertebrates, two lungs are located near the backbone on either side of ...
problems ( oedema). His many admirers amongst the most famous artists of the time, poets, musicians, dancers and critiques, formed a funeral procession to accompany his body to his final resting place, in the Cimetière des Batignolles, in Paris, during a very moving ceremony. In late 2010, the
Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
in London presented an exhibit of Bakst's costumes and prints.


Cultural depictions

* ''
Anna Pavlova Anna Pavlovna Pavlova ( , rus, Анна Павловна Павлова ), born Anna Matveyevna Pavlova ( rus, Анна Матвеевна Павлова; – 23 January 1931), was a Russian prima ballerina of the late 19th and the early 20t ...
'', film by
Emil Loteanu Emil Vladimirovich Loteanu (6 November 1936 – 18 April 2003) was a Romanian-Soviet film director born in what is now Moldova. He moved to Moscow in his early life. His best known films are '' Lăutarii'', '' Gypsies Are Found Near Heaven'', '' A ...
; portrayed by Igor Dmitriev (1983).


Selected works

File:Bakst Uhzin1902.jpg, ''Dinner''; 1902, oil on canvas, 150 × 100 cm,
Russian Museum The State Russian Museum (russian: Государственный Русский музей), formerly the Russian Museum of His Imperial Majesty Alexander III (russian: Русский Музей Императора Александра III), on ...
. File:Stage Furniture Spectre de la rose Bakst.jpg, Stage furniture design for '' Le Spectre de la rose'' by
Michel Fokine Michael Fokine, ''Mikhail Mikhaylovich Fokin'', group=lower-alpha ( – 22 August 1942) was a groundbreaking Imperial Russian choreographer and dancer. Career Early years Fokine was born in Saint Petersburg to a prosperous merchant an ...
; . File:Bakst Nizhinsky.jpg, ''Poster for Afternoon of a Faun''; 1912,
private collection A private collection is a privately owned collection of works (usually artworks) or valuable items. In a museum or art gallery context, the term signifies that a certain work is not owned by that institution, but is on loan from an individu ...
. File:Cheval s'abreuvant by L.Bakst (priv.coll).jpg, ''Drawing of a Horse Drinking''; , pencil, watercolour and gouache on paper laid on cardboard, 33 × 49 cm, private collection. File:Textile print by Leon Bakst 05.jpg, ''Textile Print''; . File:Stamp of Belarus 2016 Léon Bakst.jpg, Stamp for the 150th Anniversary of Birth of Leon Bakst; 2016,
Belposhta Belposhta ( be, Белпошта) or Belpochta (russian: Белпочта) is the national postal service of Belarus. It became a member of the Universal Postal Union in 1947. History The development of postal services in Belarus began in ancie ...
.
Waddesdon Manor"> File:Léon Bakst - The Bad Fairy Visits the Christening (The Sleeping Beauty), 1913-22.jpg, ''The Bad Fairy Visits the Christening''; 212 × 84 cm File:Léon Bakst - The Good Fairy's Promise (The Sleeping Beauty),1913-22.jpg, ''The Good Fairy's Promise''; 210 × 140 cm File:Léon Bakst - The Princess Pricks Her Finger on a Spinning Wheel (The Sleeping Beauty), 1913-22.png, ''The Princess Pricks Her Finger on a Spinning Wheel''; 213 × 143 cm File:Léon Bakst - The Aged King Pleads with the Good Fairy (The Sleeping Beauty), 1913-22.png, ''The Aged King Pleads with the Good Fairy''; 212 × 143 cm File:Léon Bakst - The Princess and the Court Fall Asleep for a Hundred Years (The Sleeping Beauty), 1913-22.jpg, ''The Princess and the Court Fall Asleep for a Hundred Years''; 212 × 171 cm File:Léon Bakst - The Prince Out Hunting Sees the Castle Where the Princess Lies Sleeping (The Sleeping Beauty), 1913-22.jpg, ''The Prince Out Hunting Sees the Castle Where the Princess Lies Sleeping''; 212 × 142 cm File:Léon Bakst - The Prince Discovers the Princess and Wakes Her with a Kiss (The Sleeping Beauty), 1913-22.jpg, ''The Prince Discovers the Princess and Wakes Her with a Kiss''; 212 × 84 cm


See also

*
List of Orientalist artists This is an incomplete list of artists who have produced works on Orientalist subjects, drawn from the Islamic world or other parts of Asia. Many artists listed on this page worked in many genres, and Orientalist subjects may not have formed a m ...
* Orientalism *
Place des États-Unis The Place des États-Unis (; "United States Square") is a public space in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, France, about 500 m south of the Place de l'Étoile and the Arc de Triomphe. It consists of a plaza, approximately long and wide, tree ...


Citations


General sources

* Marc Chagall, ''My Life'', St.-Petersburg, Azbuka, 2000, * Codell, Julie," Convergences: Art History, Museums and Scholar-Agent Martin Birnbaum's Transatlantic Art for the Public," Art Markets, Agents and Collectors, eds. A. Turpin and S. Bracken. Bloomsbury, 2021, 316-327 * Léon Bakst, ''Serov et moi en Grèce'', translation and introduction by Olga Medvedkova, preface by Véronique Schiltz, TriArtis Editions, 2015, 128 p., 24 illustrations (; ) * *


External links


The seven Sleeping Beauty panels at Waddesdon Manor
*
W.H. Crain Costume and Scene Design Collection
at the Harry Ransom Center
Working for Diaghilev
Exhibition at the Groninger Museum

* ttps://www.benuricollection.org.uk/intermediate.php?artistid=78 An artwork by Léon Bakstat th
Ben Uri
site

*
''Art Signature Dictionary - See Léon Bakst's signature, although the police seizure of counterfeit''


at the
Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

Evergreen Museum and Library
- Collection includes original stage sets, costume designs, and other related works.
Leon Bakst designs, circa 1911–1923
held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes, 1909–1929: When Art Danced with Music
2013 exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
Bakst collection
at the McNay Art Museum {{DEFAULTSORT:Bakst, Leon 1866 births 1924 deaths 19th-century painters from the Russian Empire 20th-century Russian painters Art Nouveau painters Ballet designers Ballets Russes and descendants Belarusian Jews Burials at Batignolles Cemetery French people of Belarusian-Jewish descent Emigrants from the Russian Empire to France Jewish painters Orientalism Orientalist painters People from Grodnensky Uyezd People from Grodno Russian costume designers Russian male painters Russian scenic designers Scenographers Waddesdon Manor