L'Œuvre de Léon Bakst pour La Belle au Bois dormant.

With the impressive and fragile original gilt-decorated card box, usually lacking, and which kept here the copy in excellent condition.

This is copy num. 26 out of only 500, signed both by Bakst and Brunoff.

This famous work - described by Bakst himself as a 'magnifique édition pleine de bon goût' - is a record of his extensive contribution to Diaghilev's revival of Tchaikovsky's ballet at the Alhambra Theatre in London in 1921 and Paris in 1922. It shows Bakst's sets and costumes, which present a beautiful mix of his early Russian inspiration and 18th-c. French tradition. The work is prefaced by an 18-page introduction by Levinson regarding Bakst and Tchaikovsky's ballet.

Diaghilev's production was so lavish (and not so successful) that it nearly bankrupted him. One of the ballerinas, Lydia Lopokova, was noticed by a member of the audience, who repeatedly came to see her: this was John Maynard Keynes. Lopokova soon became Mrs. Keynes, later Baroness and spent the rest of her long life in England.

Description
Folio (39.4 x 28.8 cm). With a full-page portrait of Bakst after a drawing by Pablo Picasso, 54 mounted colour plates after designs by Bakst with captioned tissue guards, and 2 other mounted vignettes.

Binding
Publisher's wrappers printed in gilt, protected by the original glassine covers and kept in the original publisher's green card box, printed and decorated in gilt (overall dimensions 41.3 x 35 cm)

Condition
The box a bit rubbed, its spine lightly faded, otherwise excellent, with the fragile glassine in perfect condition.