Léon Bakst

BAKST, Léon (1866–1924). L’œuvre de Léon Baskt pour La Belle au Bois Dormant. Ballet en Cinq actes d’après le conte de Perrault. Musique de Tchaïkovsky. Preface d'André Levinson. Paris: M. de Brunoff, 1922.

Limited edition, number 19 of 500 copies signed by both Bakst and the publisher Maurice de Brunhoff. Additionally inscribed by Jacques de Brunhoff. Bakst's exotic and sumptuous costume and set designs, in conjunction with Diaghilev's radical and provocative choreography, helped revitalize ballet and lay the framework for modern interpretive dance.

Folio. Lithographic portrait of Bakst after Picasso, 54 colour-printed plates after Bakst mounted on card with printed tissue guards. Original wrappers, spine and upper side printed in gilt, original slipcase (lightly rubbed, creasing and minor fraying to spine, splitting to block at half-title, slipcase somewhat faded and stained). Provenance: René Goutchot (inscription on endpaper: 'á Monsieur René Goutchot, amateur de beaux livres, tres amical et respectueux hommage de l'editeur. Jacques de Brunhoff, 31 Decembre 1930').