
Nineteenth century Russia was restless, and so was Léon Bakst. The young man belonged to a new generation of creatives, one ready to turn Realism on its head with one flick of a bejewelled, utterly fabulous wrist. Today, his name is “a byword for excitement, for colour and glamour” and a radical new approach to the arts spearheaded by the Ballets Russes. Caught between a country in the midst of full social upheaval and his own religious persecution, he was in the eye of the storm. The stage was more than a creative stomping ground, it was a life-raft.