March 2021 Catalogue

3 I m a g i n e d W o r l d s E a r l y M a r c h 2 0 2 1 Large Folio Limited Edition Of Designs By Léon Bakst 1. (BAKST, Leon) LEVINSOHN, Andre. Leon Bakst. Berlin, 1925. Folio, original full vellum, custom slipcase. $4000. Click for more info Limited first German edition of Levinsohn’s life of Bakst, one of only 250 copies produced, tracing the artist’s important contributions to the history of modern art and dance, with 68 full-page mounted plates of costumes and sets (52 in color). Agiftedpainter, Bakst is best remembered for the sets and costumes he designed for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in the early decades of the 20th century. His exotic and sumptuous designs helped revitalize ballet and lay the framework for modern interpretive dance. This “luxurious volume of color plates” contains beautiful designs from many of the Russian ballet’s most renowned productions, including Firebird , Blue God , Cleopatra , Narcissus , and Bakst’s famous Scheherazade (Steegmuller, 78). Preceded by the 1922 American edition and the 1923 English and French editions. Text in German. Text and plates clean and fine, expert repair to joints and slipcase, minor toning to spine, binding attractive. An extremely good copy of this splendid production.