The Designs of Léon Bakst for the Sleeping Princess. A Ballet in Five Acts after Perrault. Music by Tchaikovsky. Preface by André Levinson.

(BAKST, Léon). LEVINSON, André.

Published by LondonBenn Brothers Limited ., 1923

About this Item

FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. LIMITED EDITION (1000). This copy numbered 246 out of 500 copies for the USA, from an overall limitation of 1000. Large folio. (39 x 29 cm). Publisher's original vellum backed clue cloth boards, spine with gilt lettering, top edge gilt, others uncut. Housed in a custom-made tan buckram slipcase. Two colour vignettes, 54 full-page colour plates (one folding) by Bakst with captioned tissue-guards, and a full-page lithograph portrait of Léon Bakst by Pablo Picasso. Some occasional light foxing, light soiling to vellum and cloth, generally a very good copy. This famous work, finely produced, is a record of Bakst's extensive contribution to Diaghilev's revival of La Belle au Bois Dormant at the Alhambra Theatre in London in 1921. 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. The first French edition published the previous year (1922). Seller Inventory # 61116

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Designs of Léon Bakst for the Sleeping ...

Publisher: LondonBenn Brothers Limited .

Publication Date: 1923

Binding: Hardcover

Edition: 1st Edition