8 February 1866 year
Born in Grodno Leib Rosenberg. Better known as Lev Bakst. Artist of the Silver Age and trendsetter of European fashion.
Dress like a flower! Perfume, wrap yourself in lace—it's all incredibly beautiful! This is life and its beautiful side.
His father was a stockbroker, his mother was a merchant’s daughter (his grandfather made a fortune selling cloth to the Russian army).
From the age of three, Lev - this is how the name "Leib" is translated from Yiddish - lived with his parents in Petersburg. While in high school, he won a competition for the best portrait for the centenary Vasily Zhukovsky. After this, he interrupted his studies at the gymnasium and enrolled as an auditor at the Academy of Arts. He was unable to graduate due to a scandal: his graduation work, "The Lamentation of Christ," was deemed too innovative by the committee members.
He earned money by illustrating books and magazines. At 23, at his first exhibition of his paintings, he adopted a pseudonym. Bakst - According to one version, his maternal grandmother had the surname "Baxter".
He was one of the founders of the artists’ association “World of Art”, and was friends with Alexander Benois.
Traveled around Europe, lived alternately in Paris and St. Petersburg. One day he received a commission from the Tsar to paint a picture of the arrival of Russian sailors in Paris. He taught painting to the grand ducal children at court. One of his students was Marc Chagall.
Painted portraits Zinaida Gippius, Sergei Diaghilev, Ida Rubinstein, Anna Pavlova, Claude Debussy, Andrei Bely.
To marry the daughter of a patron of the arts Pavel Tretyakov He converted to Lutheranism, but the marriage soon fell apart. In 1909, he was expelled from St. Petersburg "for a demonstrative return to Judaism."
Soon after, he gained fame in Paris as a theater designer and trendsetter. The productions of Diaghilev's "Russian Seasons," for which Bakst designed sets and costumes, caused a sensation and became a "revolution" in the fashion world.
Tell Bakst that I am magically surprised, not knowing anything more beautiful than Scheherazade.
(Marcel Proust)
Thanks to Bakst, the fashion for turbans, harem pants, kimonos, Persian embroidery and ornaments came to Europe.
He worked as a fashion designer: among his clients were noble persons – Russian princesses and aristocrats, French actresses and bohemians.
In 1913, after his work appeared on the cover of Vogue magazine, orders from all over the world poured in. He signed expensive contracts with American fabric manufacturers. He painted the interior of a mansion. Rothschilds.
When three thousand people attended his performance in Toronto, Bakst realized that giving lectures was more profitable than painting in oils.
He was forced to work very hard to support his relatives, ex-wife and son.
I am chained by my earnings (I have 14 relatives who live entirely on my account!), and I am obliged to work tirelessly!
(from personal correspondence)
Upon arriving in Russia in 1912, he received an official order from the authorities to leave St. Petersburg—a newly adopted law prohibited Jews from living in the capital.
It was a disgrace to the country that I tried with all my might to glorify throughout the world.
In 1914 he was elected an academician of painting (this gave him the right to remain in Russia), but he remained to live in Paris.
In 1918, he broke off relations with Diaghilev: the latter had failed to pay for previous work and demanded new sets. (This forced Bakst to postpone numerous expensive commissions and waste a year, but Diaghilev approved other people's designs for his premiere.) After this, the press began criticizing Bakst as "outdated and having lost his appeal."
In 1921, he was the first to make peace and designed the ballet The Sleeping Beauty for Diaghilev, his last major production.
He was twice awarded France's highest award, the Legion of Honor. Theatrical costumes designed by him were exhibited at the Louvre during his lifetime.
He had a huge collection of multi-colored ties and was a fashionista.
Every time I bought myself new underwear, a new suit, a hat, it seemed to me that I was starting a new life, much more beautiful and interesting than the previous one, and the day after I was in an elevated mood.
He died in 1924 of pulmonary edema in Paris. He was 58.
