Rating and value of works, drawings, paintings by Léon Bakst

If you own a work by or based on the artist Léon Bakst and would like to know its value, our state-approved experts and auctioneers will guide you.

Our specialists will carry out a free appraisal of your work, and provide you with a precise estimate of its value on the current market.

Then, if you wish to sell your work, we will direct you to the best possible arrangement to obtain the optimum price. 

Artist's rating and value

Considered one of the leading members of the Russian art movement "The World of Art", Léon Bakst designed numerous sets and costumes for composer Diaghilev's famous company.

Also a painter and draughtsman, Léon Bakst enjoyed a certain reputation during his lifetime, establishing himself as a major figure on the art market.

Today highly rated and sought after by collectors, the price of works by Léon Bakst soars at auction and can exceed the million euro mark, such as his charcoal on paper The yellow Sultana, auctioned in 2012. 

Order of value from the most basic to the most prestigious

The artist's works and style

Léon Bakst (1866-1924) was a Russian painter. His practice was multi-faceted: drawing, gouache, watercolor, ink, tempera on paper or cardboard for his costume and set designs. He uses vivid, saturated pigments, sometimes enhanced with gold or silver, to achieve the effects of scenic brilliance.

His sketches are executed with a supple, calligraphic line, simultaneously specifying silhouette, volume and movement. His chromaticism is extremely bold and innovative (juxtaposition of intense complementary colors : reds/greens, blues/oranges, purples/yellows).

His work is directly influenced by the arts of the Orient, Persia and India, with polychromy inspired by oriental textiles, miniatures and carpets.

Bakst seeks a scenography of color, where each chromatic contrast produces a psychological and visual impact on the viewer. The line is elegant, sinuous and often exaggerated, inherited from Art Nouveau and Japanese prints. The figures are stylized, sometimes elongated, with clean, decorative contours.

The artist shows a marked interest in body dynamics, the costume being thought of in his work as an extension of the dancers' gestures and postures. He seeks total ornamentation, with an accumulation of floral, geometric or oriental motifs, organized according to repetitive rhythms.

The costumes and sets create an immersive unievers, where the stage becomes a global work of art. Symmetry and axial compositions are very important, combined with abundant detail. His costume designs take into account textile materials: silks, brocades, pearls, feathers and precious metals.

He works in close collaboration with sewing workshops and stage designers, transforming graphic projects into tangible objects. He integrates theatrical lighting into the design, with colors and materials chosen to interact with stage lighting.

Léon Bakst is the precursor of a modernized orientalism, which breaks with the academic naturalism of 19th-century theatrical décor, linked to Diaghuilev's Russian ballets, he embodies a new aesthetic of dance, seeing costume as a dramaturgical instrument and not a mere adornment.

In its decorative language, it anticipates Art Deco, notably in its use of geometric motifs and vibrant colors.

Bakst, behind the Opera sets

Leon Bakst was born in Belarus in 1866. At just 12, he won a drawing competition. He then decided to become a painter. Bakst entered the St. Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts, from which he was expelled for a Pietà judged too realistic.

After several trips to Italy, Germany and France, Léon Bakst settled in Paris. He was admitted to the Académie Julian and attended the studio of Jean-Léon Gérôme. His many travels enriched his culture, his career and his mind, culminating in a certain recognition in his native country.

After founding the magazine "Le Monde de l'art" in 1898, Bakst received commissions from Tsar Nicholas II and took part in the editorial staff of numerous Russian newspapers.

His career as a decorator began at the Imperial Ballet Theater in St. Petersburg in 1902. Five years later, he began a collaboration with the young choreographer Michel Fokine and also designed costume sketches for various ballets.

Léon Bakst thus became the favored partner of the Russian ballets.His boldly chromatic costumes and sets met with considerable success.

As an artist, Léon Bakst expressed a striking and refined personality, always driven by the desire to make an innovative contribution to the revival of modern art in his day. His influence left an indelible mark on the avant-garde, painting, as well as the fields of decorative arts and scenography in the first half of the 20th century.

Focus on drawings for Scheherazade, 1910

Scheherazade is a Russian ballet choreographed by Michel Fokine to music by Rimsky-Korsakov, dating from 1910. Bakst's role in this work was to design the costumes and sets for Serge de Diaghilev's Ballets Russes production.

Many of the models are now in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London or the National Theater Museum in St. Petersburg, but others are circulating on the art market.

The costumes are made from silks, brocades, velvets and chiffons, adorned with pearls, feathers and sequins. He uses saturated colors (gold, turquoise, purple, emerald green, carmine red). The models feature a precise, decorative design, where the fluid line clearly delineates the contours of the silhouettes.

The orientalizing ornamental motifs are very important in his work (arabesques, stylized floral motifs, geometric embroidery). The costumes visually convey the sensual exoticism of the libretto and the fantasized oriental luxuriance.

The garments are designed to amplify the dancers' movement, with light fabrics that create effects of fluidity and vibration. The chromatic palette contributes to the dramatic construction, with contrasting colors to differentiate between slaves, courtiers and the sultan. The overall effect, combined with the sets, transforms the scene into an immersive vision, saturated with color and light.

Bakst's Orientalism is not naturalistic but fantasized, as it responds to the Western taste for the exotic and elsewhere. Costumes evoke an imaginary Orient, lush and sensual, designed to stimulate the imagination of the European spectator. Later, Yves Saint Laurent would draw inspiration from his designs.

The visual pomp acts as a plastic equivalent of Rimsky-Korsakov's music, also orchestrated around exoticism. The creation of the costumes for Schéherazade marked a break with the academic naturalism of the 19th-century stage.

The costumes had a considerable influence on fashion (Paul Poiret drew inspiration from them for his orientalist collections). The ensemble is considered one of the major achievements of the Russian ballets, a symbol of the alliance between dance, painting, music and the decorative arts.

His signature

Not all of Léon Bakst's works are signed.

Although there are variants, here's a first example of his signature:

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