Bakst : Le Magicien Des Couleurs

A painter to the Russian imperial court, Léon Bakst (1866-1924) founded the magazine Mir Iskusstva ("The World of Art") with Sergei Diaghilev in Saint Petersburg in 1899. He created his first sets in 1900, first for the courtyard theatre of the Hermitage palace and then for the imperial theatres. In 1906, he moved to Paris and began working as a set and costume designer for the Ballets Russes company that Diaghilev had just founded, before becoming its chief set designer.

Imbued with Eastern influences, Bakst's sets and costumes were characterised by bold shapes, sumptuous colours and meticulous attention to detail. The artist achieved international renown with his creations, which revolutionised the art of theatre. The work he created in 1921 for the London production of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty is considered his masterpiece.

This book places Bakst's work in context before presenting a series of 50 of his finest creations for the stage.