"Pas de Diane" by Léon Bakst (Russia/France, 1866-1924), hand-colored lithograph, signed in plate, dated 1910, framed - 14 1/2" x 18"
 
Bakst (birth name Leyb-Khaim Izrailevich Rosenberg) was a painter and scene and costume designer. He was a member of the Sergei Diaghilevcircle and the Ballets Russes, for which he designed exotic, richly coloured sets and costumes. He studied at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts as a noncredit student, because he had failed the entry. He also worked part-time as a book illustrator, gaining admission into the Imperial Academy in 1883. His first exhibition was in 1889. At the beginning of the 1890s, Bakst exhibited his works with the Society of Watercolourists. From 1893 to 1897 he lived in Paris, where he studied at the Académie Julian. He still often visited Saint Petersburg. After the mid-1890s, Bakst became a member of the circle of writers and artists formed by Sergei Diaghilev and Benois, who in 1899 founded the influential periodical Mir iskusstva, meaning "World of Art". His graphics for this publication brought him fame. He worked as an art teacher for the children of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia, and in 1902, he took a commission from TsarNicholas II. Beginning in 1909, Bakst worked mostly as a stage-designer, designing sets for Greek tragedies.  As an art teacher, Bakst once taught Marc Chagall.