Léon Bakst (1866–1924)

Léon Bakst, né Lev Samoylovich Rosenberg, was born to a Jewish family in Grodno, Russian Empire (present-day Belarus). When he was a child, the family moved to St. Petersburg. At age 12, he won a drawing contest and decided to become a painter, but his parents disapproved of this choice of career. After his parents divorced and started new families, Léon and his three siblings rented their own apartment, where he, as the eldest, supported them doing all kinds of painting work. After graduating from gymnasium (high school), he studied at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts and worked part-time as a book illustrator. He gained admission to the Imperial Academy of Arts in 1883. At the time of his first exhibition in 1889, he took the new surname of Bakst. From 1893 to 1897, he lived in Paris, where he studied at the Académie Julian. Bakst became a member of the circle of writers and artists formed by Sergei Diaghilev and Alexandre Benois, who founded the influential periodical Mir iskusstva (World of Art). His graphics for this publication made Bakst famous. He continued to paint and receive commissions for portraits, In 1909, he went back to Paris, where he won international acclaim as an innovative scenic and costume designer for Diaghilev's newly-formed Ballets Russes. His work was seen in Cléopâtre (1909); Le Carnaval and Scheherazade (both 1910), Le Spectre de la rose (1911), L'après-midi d'un faune (1912) and Daphnis et Chloé (1912). During this time, although he lived mostly in western Europe, he made periodic visits to St. Petersburg, where he taught in Elizaveta Zvantseva's art school; among his students were Marc Chagall and Elena Guro. Bakst revolutionized theatrical design, and also created fashion clothing, furniture, home interiors, textiles, and more. His had an exhibition of his work in 1913 in New York that traveled to Detroit, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Chicago, and Montreal. In 1922, Bakst broke off his relationship with Diaghilev and went to visit his American friend and patron Alice Warder Garrett and her husband in Baltimore, Maryland, where he designed a private theater for their home, Evergreen House. Bakst was also a prolific writer, producing works in three languages that included novels, magazines articles, essays, and criticism.