Design for the stage decoration of the 'Nutcracker' and Sketch of a Church

Alexander Nikolaevich Benois (1870-1960) was extremely versatile. He was a painter, a graphic artist and art critic, a leading figure of the 'World of Art' society, a profilic writer on the work of Russian and foreign masters, and an outstanding scene painter who worked all his life in the theater world.
Benois' international fame rests mainly in his stage designs, where he fused traditional Russian folk elements with the French rococo style. He was a "theatrical wizard" who offered his viewers brilliant but purely fantastic images, and he collaborated with Sergei Diaghilev both in Russian and in Paris on numerous ballets such as Giselle, le Pavillion d'Armide, Les Sylphides and Petroushka. In 1926, he left Russia and settled in Paris, where he spent the rest of his life and was involved in staging almost 200 operas and ballets in many cities throughout Europe and America.