Details
Leon Bakst (1866-1924)
Design for Boris Godunov Opera
signed and dated lower right Bakst 1910, gouache on paper laid on board
15¼ x 24¾in. (38.3 x 62.9cm.)

Lot Essay

Executed in 1910

According to Charles Spencer, this work bears remarkable similarities to the decor Bakst created for the Prologue of La Pisanella in 1913, by d'Annunzio, written for Ida Rubinstein, Paris. They are both Byzantine conceptions, with typically low, diametrical vaulting, with religious paintings and images of saints on the walls and in niches.
Comparisons can also be made with the decors of the great Russian painter Vrubel, who had trained as a restorer of Russian church art.

We are grateful to Charles Spencer for his help in cataloguing this lot

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