Léon Bakst was a Russian painter and designer, who revolutionized theatrical design both in scenery and in costume. He was a member of the Sergei Diaghilev circle and the Ballets Russes, for which he designed opulent, exotic, richly coloured and innovative sets and costume. His influence on fashion and interior design was widespread.
Background
Léon Bakst was born on January 27, 1866 in Grodno, at that time part of the Russian Empire (present-day Grodno, Hrodzyenskaya Voblasts', Belarus). He was raised in a middle-class Jewish family. His father, Samuel Rosenberg, was a respected Talmudist. Bakst's mother was a daughter of a businessman Baxter from Grodno, who worked as a tailor and supplier of cloth for the Russian army. Baxter was an exceptional tailor, associated with Tzar, so young Léon was somehow exposed to art from a very young age. The Tsar gave his grandfather a very good position and he had a huge and wonderful house in Saint Petersburg. Later, when Léon's parents moved to the capital, he would visit his grandfather's house every Saturday, always returning there with pleasure.
Léon took a pseudonym "Bakst", derived from his grandfather’s family name — Baxter.
Education
Léon Bakst was interested in the visual arts from an early age. Initially, he studied at the Saint Petersburg Gymnasium №6. At about age sixteen, Bakst made his first attempt to gain entrance to the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg, but failed. After a year of further study as a noncredit student, he was accepted in 1883, and while there, he formed a lasting friendship with an older student, the painter Valentin Serov.
In his early years, Léon also worked part-time as a book illustrator to support his studies. In 1887, when Bakst submitted for a school competition, showing the familiar biblical figures — Mary, with her red-rimmed eyes, and the disciples — as impoverished Jews, the school authorities were scandalized and dismissed him.
From 1893 till 1899, Bakst travelled widely in Europe and North Africa. He studied in Paris with a number of notable artists, including French orientalist Jean-Léon Gérôme at the Académie Julian from 1893 till 1897. Also, Bakst studied art under the tutelage of Finnish landscape painter Albert Edelfelt.
Léon Bakst began his professional life as a copyist and illustrator of teaching materials, although he quickly moved on to painting portraits and illustrating popular magazines. He produced a variety of illustrations for magazines and children’s books, and in 1890, Bakst was introduced to Alexandre Benois and his circle, a group, known informally as the "Nevsky Pickwickians". As a member of this group, Léon met Serge Diaghilev and others, who would influence his art and life.
A couple of years later, the painter started exhibiting with the Society of Watercolorists. During the early 1890's, Bakst traveled throughout Europe, visiting Spain, Germany, Tunisia, Algeria and Greece, and between 1893 and 1897, he lived and studied in Paris. At that time, he continued visiting Saint Petersburg.
After completing his studies in Paris and further traveling, Bakst came back to Russia. In 1898, together with Benois and Diaghilev, Bakst co-founded the influential Mir Iskusstva (World of Art) group, and until 1904, he was responsible for the illustrations and graphics of its influential magazine of the same name. Members of the movement attempted — by means of articles, lectures and exhibitions — to educate the Russian public about trends, movements and issues in the arts. Paid work on the magazine freed Bakst from the patronage system and allowed him to focus on graphic arts and painting. Léon also exhibited his works wherever it was possible. He showed at the Munich Secession exhibitions, in shows, organized by Mir Iskusstva and in the First exhibition of Russian and Finnish Artists, organized by Diaghilev in 1898.
At the very height of the World of Art movement, Bakst continued easel painting, as well producing portraits of Filipp Malyavin (1899), Vasily Rozanov (1901), Andrei Bely (1905) and Zinaida Gippius (1906). He also worked as an art teacher for children of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich. In 1902, Léon took a commission from Tsar Nicholas II of Russia to paint the Meeting of Russian sailors in Paris. During the Russian Revolution of 1905, Bakst worked for several magazines, such as Zhupel, Adskaja Pochta, Satyricon and for art magazine Apollon.
In 1901, Bakst designed his first theatrical set for Diaghilev's production of Leo Delibes’s ballet "Sylvia". Although, this production failed to get off the ground, it set Léon on the road to creating sets and costumes for a number of theatres in Saint Petersburg. For example, between 1902-1903, he created designs for several stage productions at the Hermitage and Alexandrinsky theatres in Saint Petersburg, and in 1903-1904, the painter completed several sets for the Maryinsky theatre. While involved in theatrical productions, he also showed his work in an enormous traveling exhibition of Russian art, organized in 1906 by Diaghilev. In 1909, Bakst went to Paris, where he began designing stage sets and costumes for Diaghilev’s newly formed ballet company "Ballets Russes".
During the period of time, which was devoted to Diaghilev’s ballet company, Bakst often visited Saint Petersburg, where he taught at Elizaveta Zvantseva's art school. Between 1908-1910, Marc Chagall was one of his students. However, in 1910, they had a falling out. Bakst advised Chagall not to go to Paris as, according to Bakst, it would be harmful for Chagall's art and would probably be financially ruinous as well. Chagall ignored Bakst's advice, moved there anyway, found his style and became one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century, far outstripping Bakst.
Towards the end of the 1900's, Bakst began to focus exclusively on theatrical art. He stayed with the Ballets Russes until 1919 and designed sets for Diaghilev's productions. Among his productions were Cleopatra (1909), Scheherazade (1910), Carnaval (1910), Le Spectre de la Rose (1911), Narcisse (1911), L'après-midi d'un faune (1912) and Daphnis et Chloe (1912). At the same time, he worked as a freelance costume designer for private clients, like Vera Komissarzhervskaya and Ida Rubinstein.
In 1912, he settled down in Paris, being exiled from Saint Petersburg, where, as a Jew, he was barred from obtaining a residence permit. Two years later, in 1914, in recognition of his work, Bakst was elected a member of the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg.
After 1919, Léon returned to the Ballets Russes occasionally, creating designs for productions, such as Sleeping Beauty (1921). However, in 1922, he left Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes for good. The same year, he traveled to Baltimore in the United States to see his friend and patron, Alice Warder Garrett. While in Baltimore, he did some interior designs for Garrett, including the design of a Modernist private theatre. Shortly afterward, Bakst returned to France, but despite continuing success, his creative spark was beginning to fade.
Léon Bakst gained prominence as one of the most brilliant and daring costume designers of his time. His influence was so radical and pervasive, that the first two decades of the twentieth century were called the Bakst era. The achievements of Léon Bakst were great, since the artist introduced practically new aesthetics and different approach to work in regards not only to the painting, but theater and even education.
Also, in 1898, he co-founded Mir Iskusstva (World of Art) group.
Today, works by Bakst, including costumes and prints, can be seen in several of the world's best art museums, including the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg, the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and others.
Le martyre de Saint Sebastien, Ida Rubinstein as St. Sebastian
"Narcisse" -Boeotian
Operatic costume designs
painting
Self Portrait
Portrait of the Future Countess Henri de Boisgelin
The poet Zinaida Gippius
In the artist's studio
St. Sebastian, from "The Martyr of St. Sebastian"
Portrait of the Marchesa Casati
An ancient horror
Portrait of Leon Bakst
Portrait of Jean Cocteau
Portrait of the Marchesa Casati
Portrait of Russian painter Filipp Andreevich Maljawin
Portrait of a Lady
The Portrait of Son of the Artist
Portrait of Boris Nikolayevich Bugaev (Andrey Bely)
Portrait of Alexandre Benois
Portrait of Miss Paoloff
Dmitry Filosof portrait
The Portrait of Walter Fedorovich Nuvel
Model
The Supper
Portrait of Miss Ida Rubinstein
Vase (self-portrait)
Ida Rubinstein
Leonid Massine
poster
Art open letter of Red Cross
Front cover of Comoedia
Big Philanthropic Puppet Bazaar, St. Petersburg
Religion
When Bakst fell in love with a Russian Orthodox woman, he converted to the Orthodox Church in order to be able to marry her. When he quarreled with his wife and found out, that the law, allowing Jews to revert to their faith, Judaism, had been promulgated, he was among the first to do so.
Views
Quotations:
"Chagall is my favourite pupil, and what I like about him is that after listening attentively to my lessons, he takes his paints and brushes and does something absolutely different from what I have told him."
"It is goodbye to scenery designed by a painter blindly subjected to one part of the work, to costumes made by any old dressmaker who strikes a false and foreign note in the production. It is goodbye to the kind of acting, movements, false notes and that terrible, purely literary wealth of details which make modern theatrical production a collection of tiny impressions without that unique simplicity, which emanates from a true work of art."
Membership
Bakst was a member of "Nevsky Pickwickians" group.
Imperial Academy of Arts
,
Russian Federation
1914
Personality
Bakst was a delightful person, full of imagination and often highly comical, sometimes without meaning it.
Connections
Bakst was married to Lyubov Pavlovna Tretyakova, who was a daughter of Pavel Mikhaylovich Tretyakov, a Russian businessman, patron of art, collector and philanthropist. Their marriage produced one son — Andrey L. Bakst, a painter. In 1907, Léon and Lyubov separated.
Leon Bakst and the Ballets Russes
The book explores the complex personality and decorative genius of Leon Bakst from childhood to his puzzling death in Paris at the early age of 58. His obsession with erotic imagery is carefully analysed, and his influence on fashion, interior decoration, design and the decorative arts is fully evaluated. Also, the work contains more than 300 illustrations.
