Bakst Leon Samoilovich

Leon Samoilovich Bakst (Rosenberg) was a Russian painter, portraitist, scenographer, and book illustrator, a master of easel painting and theatrical graphics. He was a prominent figure in the "World of Art" movement and the theatrical projects of S. P. Diaghilev. He studied at the Academy of Arts under P. P. Chistyakov and K. B. Venig, and in Paris at the studio of J.-L. Gérôme and under A. Edelfelt. From 1901, he worked as a theater artist in St. Petersburg and for Diaghilev's enterprises. In 1910, he was awarded a large gold medal at the International Exhibition in Brussels for his painting "Ancient Terror." From 1914, he was an academician, a member of the Salon d'Automne, vice-president of the jury of the Society of Decorative Arts in France, and a member of the Royal Academy of Brussels.