Bakst

Léon. The professional name of Lev Samojlovic Rosenberg (1886-1924), a Russian painter. A Symbolist, he created together with Diaghilev and Alexandre Benois the avant-guard movement known as The World of Art. He followed Diaghilev to Paris and was the most important costume and set designer of the Ballets Russes. He worked on Schéhérazade (1909), The Firebird (1910), and Afternoon of a Faun. His references to the folk traditions of his native land, charged with exoticism, influenced the French fashions of those years.