L'Art Décoratif de Léon Bakst [1/80 deluxe edition] (The Decorative Art of Leon Bakst) [SIGNED TWICE BY THE PUBLISHER, WITH ORIGINAL WATERCOLOR]

Paris: Maurice de Brunoff, 1913. Limited edition. Hardcover. Very good to fine condition. 1/80. Small Elephant Folio. [6], 49pp. (text), 77 leaves (plates), [8]pp. Uncut at fore- and bottom edges. Original gilt-stamped full vellum, with gilt vignette on cover, gilt lettering and ruling on spine. Top edge gilt. Laid in, an original pochoir-highlighted watercolor signed and dated in pencil by the artist in lower right margin, protected by modern mylar. Mounted photogravure frontispiece portrait of Leon Bakst with his facsimile signature below gravure. Title page printed in red and black. Limitation page with publisher's signature. Additional publisher's signature on verso of first front free endpaper. Historiated head- and tailpieces after Bakst. Chapter titles and initials printed in red.

Lev Samoylovich Rosenberg (Bakst), painter and stage designer, realized his greatest artistic success in the Alesandrinksy and Maryinsky theaters, and later from 1901 to 1921 with Diaghilev at the Ballet Russe where he designed more productions than any other artist. Theater and costume designs for more than ten ballet works appear in this splendid deluxe edition containing 77 tipped-in plates, all but one after Bakst, 4 of them folding and 50 in full color, with pochoir highlights.

The striking plates of Leon Bakst's stage sets and costumes for the Ballet Russe are accompanied by synopses of the plays by Jean Cocteau for whom they were designed. Bakst’s brilliant control of color, line and decoration give his stage pictures a visual rhythm. Color and chromatic combinations were used emotionally and sensuously. The splendid costumes are richly decorated with a myriad of motifs and decorative shapes. Captions for each plate on facing plates.
Text in French. Covers with minor smudging, interior in near fine to fine condition.