Scarce original English-language edition printed in Austria & published in Russia/USSR (commissioned by the renowned Aurora Art based in St. Petersburg), beautifully illustrated throughout on glossy paper. Many subsequent publications on Bakst issued by various American/Western European publishers are based on this very edition. Le?on Bakst (1866-1924), a leading Russian artist, was a highly energetic founding member of the Mir iskusstva [World of Art] association, a group organized in St. Petersburg in the late 1890s by artists and art lovers, led by Alexander Benois and Sergei Diaghilev. Its membership included many gifted painters and graphic artists, not only in St. Petersburg but also in Moscow, among them Ivan Bilibin, Alexander Golovin, Igor Grabar, Konstantin Korovin, Boris Kustodiev, Nikolai Roerich and Valentin Serov. Bakst was widely acclaimed as a portraitist, book illustrator and landscape painter, though his style was seen to best advantage in the work he did for the theatre. His designs for stage sets and costumes are conspicuous for their riotous fantasy, astounding beauty and historical authenticity. As the leading designer for the Ballets Russes, which Sergei Diaghilev promoted abroad, Bakst made a unique contribution to the popularization of Russian art in western Europe.