Bakst portrait of Zinaida Gippius. L

The first "adult" works of Leon Bakst were illustrations for children's books. He later became a renowned portrait painter and revolutionary theater decorator, painter who "drunk Paris" and designer whose lecture cost $2,000 in America in the 1920s.

Art teacher in the imperial family

Leon Bakst was born in 1866 in Grodno into a Jewish family. At birth, he was named Leib-Chaim Rosenberg. When the family moved to the capital, the boy often visited his grandfather, a fashionable tailor, in an old elegant apartment in the very center of St. Petersburg. Leon Bakst read a lot, put on puppet shows for children and listened to the stories of his parents and grandfather about the theater. From childhood, Bakst was also fond of drawing. His father showed his drawings to the sculptor Mark Antokolsky, who advised the boy to study painting.

Leon Bakst entered the Academy of Arts as a volunteer, but did not graduate from it. He took lessons from Alexandre Benois and worked part time creating illustrations for children's books. At the first exhibition of his work in 1889, Leib-Chaim Rosenberg adopted the pseudonym Leon Bakst.

In 1893 Bakst left for Paris. Here he continued to study painting, and paintings became the only source of income for the young artist. Bakst wrote in a letter to a friend: “The seller of paintings impudently takes my best sketches for pennies”.

During one of his visits to St. Petersburg, Leon Bakst began to visit the circle of Alexander Benois. It included artists, writers and art lovers, who later formed the artistic association "World of Art". When the World of Art began to publish their own magazine, Bakst headed the art department. Soon he was invited by the Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich to give drawing lessons to children.

In the early 1910s, Leon Bakst created a whole gallery of portraits of his contemporaries - Philip Malyavin and Vasily Rozanov, Zinaida Gippius and Jean Cocteau, Sergei Diaghilev and Isadora Duncan.

“Red-haired, ruddy clever Bakst refused to write me simply, he needed me to be animated to ecstasy! To do this, he brought his friend from the editorial office of the World of Art magazine, who had eaten ten dogs in terms of the ability to revive and tell clever stories and anecdotes, then the predatory tiger Bakst, flashing his eyes, sneaked up on me, grabbing his brush.
Andrey Bely

Leon Bakst created a number of landscapes and children's portraits, mystical paintings "Ancient Horror" and "Elysium". About the famous painting "Dinner" Vasily Rozanov wrote: “A stylish decadent of the end of the century, black and white, thin as an ermine, with a mysterious smile a la Gioconda eats oranges”.

Leon Bakst. Ancient horror. 1908. State Russian Museum

Leon Bakst. Dinner. 1902. State Russian Museum

Leon Bakst. Elysium. 1906. State Tretyakov Gallery

"Paris is truly drunk on Bakst"

In 1903, Leon Bakst first created the scenery for the play and sketches for theatrical costumes. The choreographer brothers Nikolai and Sergei Legates from the St. Petersburg Imperial Troupe asked the artist to design their ballet The Doll Fairy. Alexandre Benois later recalled the event: “From the first steps, Bakst took a downright dominant position and since then he has remained the only and unsurpassed”.

In the same year, the artist married - Lyubov Tretyakova. Pavel Tretyakov agreed to the marriage on one condition: Bakst had to change his religion. The artist converted to Lutheranism. In 1907, the couple separated, and Bakst - now it was his official name - again converted to Judaism. For this, he was expelled from St. Petersburg: in those years, not all Jews had the right to live in the capital.

Leon Bakst went to Greece - along with the artist Valentin Serov. He made sketches of Mediterranean landscapes and sketches there, which later became fragments of new theatrical scenery.

Since 1910, Leon Bakst again settled in Paris. During these years, he earned real world fame for his theatrical scenery - voluminous, multi-layered and fabulous. He designed Diaghilev's ballets for his Parisian Russian Seasons - Cleopatra, Scheherazade, Carnival and Narcissus.

According to his sketches, costumes were sewn for artists of the Imperial Theaters - Vaslav and Bronislava Nizhinsky, Tamara Karsavina, Vera Fokina. Bakst also collaborated with the pioneering theater company of Ida Rubinstein. The artist carefully thought out the details of the costumes, their colors and patterns, which during the dances emphasized the plasticity and flexibility of the actors. Art critic Mstislav Dobuzhinsky wrote: “he was recognized and “crowned” by refined and capricious Paris itself”, and Andrey Levinson - "Paris is truly drunk on Bakst".

Leon Bakst. Costume design for Sylvia for a production by the Mariinsky Theatre. 1901. State Russian Museum

Leon Bakst. Costume design for the Firebird for Sergei Diaghilev's entreprise. 1910. State Central Theater Museum named after A.A. Bakhrushin

Leon Bakst. Costume design for Salome for a private performance by Ida Rubinstein. 1908. State Tretyakov Gallery

Leon Bakst. Sketch of the "Assyro-Egyptian" costume for Tamara Karsavina. 1907. State Russian Museum

World famous fashion designer

The capital of France was embraced by the fashion for everything oriental and Russian, and these were echoes of the Russian seasons. Turbans and wigs, shawls and dresses reminiscent of actors' costumes appeared in stores. Leon Bakst designed interiors and accessories, furniture and dishes, jewelry and even cars. During these years he became one of the most popular designers in Paris. Maximilian Voloshin wrote about the artist: “Bakst managed to capture that elusive nerve of Paris that rules fashion, and his influence is now felt everywhere in Paris - both in ladies' dresses and at art exhibitions”.

A book about Bakst's work was published in Paris, and the French government awarded him the Order of the Legion of Honor. The artist published his articles on contemporary art, took many photographs, wrote an autobiographical novel and lectured on contemporary art in Russia, America and Europe.

Leon Bakst also designed fabrics. After the Russian seasons, expensive French stores began to sell Odalisque and Scheherazade fabrics. For the Parisian couturier Paul Poiret, Bakst created original ornaments and sophisticated patterns. Bakst's fabrics were popular not only in Europe, but also in America. One of the latest creative projects of the world famous artist was a hundred sketches of fabrics for mass production.

“She was spoken of as a provincial who had risen to a literary salon in Paris,
evil, proud, smart, self-important.
In addition to "smart", everything is wrong, that is, maybe evil,
Yes, not to the extent, not in the style, as it is commonly thought.
Proud no more than those who know their own worth.
Arrogant - no, not at all in a bad way.
But, of course, she knows her specific gravity…”,
- Bunin's wife will write later in her memoirs.
"The Uniqueness of Zinaida Gippius"
So Alexander Blok called
a completely unique combination of personality and poetry.

This is what Berdyaev wrote about her in his autobiography “Self-knowledge”: “I consider Zinaida Nikolaevna a very wonderful person, but also very painful. I was always struck by her serpentine coldness. There was no human warmth in her. which is stronger. There was genuine suffering. Zinaida Nikolaevna is by nature an unhappy person."

She was called both the "witch" and the "Sataness", they sang her literary talent and called her the "decaden Madonna", they feared her and worshiped her. A green-eyed beauty, a dashing Amazon with a scythe to the floor, a slender figure and a halo of sunny hair, teasing her fans with caustic words and caustic hints. St. Petersburg secular lady, calm in her marriage, the owner of a well-known salon in St. Petersburg. A tireless debater and organizer of everyday stormy philosophical-literary and political-historical discussions. All this she is - Zinaida Gippius.
Defying the public, even ten years after her marriage to Merezhkovsky, she appeared in public with a scythe - an underlined sign of virginity. In general, she allowed herself everything that was forbidden to the rest. For example, she wore men's clothes (this is how Lev Bakst depicted her in the famous portrait) or sewed dresses for herself, at which passers-by looked in bewilderment and horror both in St. brick color. And in 1905, long before Coco Chanel, she made a short haircut. - See more at: http://labrys.ru/node/6939#sthash.rgHnw1Ry.dpuf

Through the path into the forest, in the comfort of a welcome,
Drenched in sunshine and shade,
The thread is cobweb, elastic and clean,
hung in the sky; and trembling imperceptible
The wind shakes the thread, trying to break in vain;
It is strong, thin, transparent and simple.
The living emptiness is cut into the sky
A sparkling line - a multi-colored string.
We are accustomed to appreciate one unclear thing.
In tangled knots, with some false passion,
We are looking for subtleties, not believing what is possible
Greatness with simplicity in the soul to combine.
But everything that is difficult is pitiful, deadly and rude;
And the subtle soul is as simple as this thread...
Zinaida GIPPIUS

Rumors, gossip, legends swarmed around her, which Gippius not only collected with pleasure, but also actively multiplied. She was very fond of hoaxes. For example, she wrote letters to her husband in different handwriting, as if from fans, in which, depending on the situation, she scolded or praised him. In Silver Age intellectual and artistic circles, Gippius was well known for her preaching of "an androgynous and psychological unisex". Sergei Makovsky wrote about her: "She was all - "on the contrary", defiantly, not like everyone else .."

Hobbies, love happened to both spouses (including same-sex ones). But with Zinaida Nikolaevna things never went beyond kisses. Gippius believed that only in a kiss are lovers equal, and in what should follow next, someone will definitely stand above the other. And this Zinaida in no case could not allow. For her, the most important thing has always been the equality and union of souls - but not bodies. All this made it possible to call the marriage of Gippius and Merezhkovsky "the union of a lesbian and a homosexual." Letters were thrown into Merezhkovsky's apartment: "Aphrodite took her revenge on you by sending her wife - a hermaphrodite."

Dmitry Merezhkovsky Nizhny Novgorod, 1890s

L. Bakst, Portrait

L.S. Bakst. Portrait of D.V. Filosofov. 1898

S.I. Vitkevich (Vitkatsi). Portrait of D.V. Filosofov. June 1932.
http://www.nasledie-rus.ru/podshivka/6406.php

Zinaida Gippius and ballet critic L.S. Volynsky. .

In the late 1890s, Gippius was on close terms with the English Baroness Elisabeth von Overbeck. Coming from a family of Russified Germans, Elizaveta von Overbeck collaborated as a composer with Merezhkovsky - she wrote music for the tragedies of Euripides and Sophocles translated by him, which were staged at the Alexandrinsky Theater. Gippius dedicated several poems to Elisabeth von Overbeck.

Today I will hide your name
And aloud - to others - I will not name.
But you will hear that I am with you,
Again you - one - I live.
In the wet sky, the star is bigger,
Trembling - streaming - its edges.
And I look into the night, and my heart remembers
That this night is yours, yours!
Let me see my dear eyes again
Look into their depth - in breadth - and blue.
Earthly heart in the great night
In his anguish - oh, do not leave!
And more and more greedily, more and more steadily
It calls - one - you.
Take my heart in the palm of your hand
Warm - comfort - comfort, loving ...

From the intimate diary of Gippius "Contes d amour" (1893) it is clear that she liked courtship and was drawn to some men, but at the same time they repelled her. "In my thoughts, my desires, in my spirit - I'm more of a man, in my body - I'm more of a woman. But they are so merged that I don't know anything." She tried to enter into a love affair with Dmitry Filosofov, a companion of the Merezhkovskys, based on the fact that he is a man with a clear predominance of the feminine (he was a homosexual), and she herself has a pronounced masculine character. Naturally, nothing came of this; Gippius wrote a story about this failure in letters

Looks like she's still a virgin. But their fifty-year spiritual union with Dmitry Merezhkovsky gave Russian culture and literature, perhaps much more than if they were a traditional married couple. Her death caused an explosion of emotions. Those who hated Gippius came to see for themselves that she was dead. Those who respected and valued her saw in her death the end of an entire era ... Ivan Bunin, who never came to the funeral - he was terribly afraid of death and everything connected with it - practically did not leave the coffin .... 1902

I honor the High
His testament.
For the lonely
There is no victory.
But the only way
The soul is open
And the mysterious call
Like a war cry
Sounds, sounds...
Lord of epiphany
He gave us now;
For achievement -
The road is narrow
Let the bold
But unchanged
One - joint -
He pointed.
1902

Time cuts flowers and herbs
At the very root of a shiny scythe:
Buttercup of love, aster of glory...
But the roots are all intact - there, underground.

Life and my mind, fiery clear!
You two are the most merciless to me:
With the root you tear what is beautiful,
In the soul after you - nothing, nothing!
1903

Lev Bakst. "Portrait of Zinaida Gippius" (1906)
Paper, pencil, sanguine. 54 x 44 cm
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia

A graphic portrait made on paper. The artist used a pencil, used a sanguine. Moreover, the sheet of paper is glued. The bottom line is that Zinaida Nikolaevna had an absolutely amazing figure, marvelous legs were especially remarkable, and therefore he was able to make these long, endless legs that Bakst wanted to show, only by gluing a little more paper.
The portrait was scandalous, starting from the costume and ending with a completely indecent pose.
Gippius is wearing a boy's costume, this is the costume of the little Lord Pumplerob - a story that was written by the Anglo-American writer Bardned in 1886. And it became very widely known in 1888, it has already been translated into Russian. In general, this story has been translated into 17 foreign languages.

The hero is a boy, a seven-year-old American, a staunch Republican, a very reasonable and noble child of deeds and thoughts, who, by the will of fate, ended up in England. Moreover, who turned out to be a lord by birth, behaves just as democratically and friendly.

So, he was a golden-haired boy who appeared before the readers, before his grandfather-lord, he appeared in a black velvet suit, in short trousers, in a shirt with a lace jabot, and this fashion, she then plagued wonderful, mobile, emotional children - boys throughout the late nineteenth century.

So, the very fact that Zinaida Nikolaevna tries on this costume, which suited her extremely well, also has an element of both irony and provocation in this.

Zinaida Gippius dedicated two sonnets to Bakst.
I. Salvation

We judge, sometimes we speak so beautifully,
And it seems that great powers have been given to us.
We preach, we are intoxicated with ourselves,
And we call everyone to us resolutely and authoritatively.
Alas for us: we are on a dangerous road.
Doomed to remain silent before someone else's sorrow, -
We are so helpless, so pathetic and funny
When we try to help others in vain.

Consolation in sorrow, only he will help
Who is joyful and simple and believes unfailingly,
That life is fun, that everything is blessed;
Who loves without longing and lives like a child.
I humbly bow before the true power;
We do not save the world: love will save it.

We are accustomed to appreciate one unclear thing.
In tangled knots, with some false passion,
We are looking for subtleties, not believing what is possible
Greatness with simplicity in the soul to combine.
But everything that is difficult is pitiful, deadly and rude;
And the subtle soul is as simple as this thread.

This article was automatically added from the community

I love the gear cycle "Collection of the Tretyakov Gallery" with Ksenia Larina "Echo of Moscow". Sometimes you can listen. Sometimes I read the text version on the official website of the radio station. But I always learn something new for myself.

For example, here about Bakst's 1906 portrait of Zinaida Gippius. Moreover, I have already posted her poems and biography. It's time to post the portrait.

A graphic portrait made on paper. The artist used a pencil, used a sanguine. Moreover, the sheet of paper is glued.
It was originally a sketch that Bakst later completed. Zinaida Nikolaevna had an absolutely amazing figure and marvelous legs. Bakst was able to show her long, endless legs only by gluing some more paper.
The portrait was initially viewed as scandalous and indecent because of the costume that Zinaida Gippius was wearing.
This is the costume of little Lord Pumplerob, the hero of the story written by the Anglo-American writer Bardned in 1886, which was translated into 17 foreign languages, including Russian.
The hero of the story is a seven-year-old American, a former staunch Republican, who, by the will of fate, ended up in England. Moreover, even having learned that he is a lord by birth, the hero behaves democratically and friendly with everyone.
This golden-haired boy appeared in front of readers and in front of his grandfather-lord in a black velvet suit, in short trousers, in a shirt with a lace jabot, and this fashion was followed by active boys of the entire late 19th century.
The very fact that Zinaida Nikolaevna tried on a similar costume, which suited her extremely well, contained an element of irony and provocation.
The portrait of Zinaida Gippius by Bakst entered the Tretyakov Gallery in 1920. Previously, it was in the collection of Sergei Alexandrovich Koussevitzky, a well-known Moscow collector.
Koussevitzky was a very prominent figure in the artistic life of pre-revolutionary Russia: a double bass virtuoso and conductor. The conductor is special. His program consisted largely of works by contemporary Russian composers. Thanks to him, the whole world learned the music of Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky and other contemporary composers.
Coming from a poor family, Koussevitzky married Natalya Konstantinovna Ushkova, a representative of a very rich merchant and philanthropic Moscow dynasty. On the dowry he received, he organized the Russian Musical Society, in which the scores of contemporary Russian composers saw the light for the first time.
Sergei Alexandrovich was a tireless popularizer of Russian music. He continued his collecting and popularization activities even after emigration.
Already in the West, he began to collect a collection, helped Russian émigré artists. In particular, he made an order for the decoration of his house in Paris to Natalya Goncharova, which helped her immensely financially. He sheltered in his Boston orchestra as a secretary his acquaintance from Moscow, a philanthropist and collector, Henrietta Leopoldovna Girshman.
The collection of his fine focus (he collected portraits of musical figures) and the high quality of the works.
In addition to the portrait of Gippius, this collection included Vrubel's "Rose" and "Shadows of the Lagoon".

Yes, and back in 1901, Gippius dedicated two wonderful sonnets to Bakst:

TWO SONNETS
L. S. Bakst

I. Salvation

We judge, sometimes we speak so beautifully,
And it seems that great powers have been given to us.
We preach, we are intoxicated with ourselves,
And we call everyone to us resolutely and authoritatively.
Alas for us: we are on a dangerous road.
Doomed to remain silent before someone else's grief, -
We are so helpless, so pathetic and funny
When we try to help others in vain.

II. A thread