1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bakst, Leon Nicolaievich

BAKST, LEON NICOLAIEVICH (1866–), Russian painter and theatrical designer, was born at St. Petersburg May 10 (April 27 O.S.) 1866. He was educated at St. Petersburg, where he afterwards studied art, and later went to Paris, subsequently returning and working in Moscow. In 1906 he settled in Paris, and soon became popular as a designer. In 1909 the Imperial Russian Ballet first visited Paris, and Bakst at once leapt into fame through his designs for the setting of the ballets Scheherazade and Cleopatre, followed in 1912 by L'Apres-Midi d'un Faune, Helene de Sparte, and St. Sebastien, and in 1913 by La Pisanella. He published in 1913 an article in La Hjouvelle Revue, entitled " Les Problemes de 1'Art Nouveau."

See L'Arl decoratif de Leon. Bakst, with appreciation by Arsene Alexandra, translated by H. Melvill (1913).