Alexandre Benois

For more information on Alexandre Nikolayevich Benois, visit Britannica.com.

(b St Petersburg, 3 May 1870; d Paris, 9 Feb 1960). Painter, graphic artist, stage designer and writer, son of (1) Nikolay Benois. He was educated in St Petersburg, attending the May Gymnasium (1885-90) and the Faculty of Law at the university (1890-94). Although he attended the Academy of Arts for four months (1887-8) and classes at various studios in France, including that of Whistler in 1896, Alexandre Benois regarded himself as a self-taught artist. Brought up in the milieu of an artistic and influential family, he organized art circles at both the gymnasium and the university. A man of great knowledge and sophisticated taste, he stimulated everyone who worked with him and played a crucial role in Russian culture during the first quarter of the 20th century. It was he, for instance, who involved Serge Diaghilev in ballet and helped with his early artistic projects. He started his professional career as curator (1895-9) of Princess Maria Tenisheva's collection of modern paintings, and he became a founder and leading member of the group WORLD OF ART (Mir Iskusstva; 1898) and of the exhibition society that succeeded it (1910). He also became artistic director of both the BALLETS RUSSES (1909-11) and the Moscow Art Theatre (Mkhat; c. 1909-14).

Part of the Benois family

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Benois, Alexandre (b St Petersburg, 4 May 1870, d Paris, 9 Feb. 1960). Russian painter and designer. One of the key figures of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. Like Diaghilev he studied law at the University of St Petersburg and in 1899, along with Diaghilev, Bakst, and Nouvel, founded the art magazine Mir Iskusstva (The World of Art) which led directly to the Paris exhibitions of Russian art, the success of which allowed Diaghilev to branch out into Russian opera and, in 1909, ballet. Benois was the first artistic director of the Ballets Russes de Diaghilev, remaining until 1911 when a quarrel led to his departure. He began designing for the ballet at the Maryinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, where his productions included Sylvia (never staged), Cupid's Revenge (1902), and Le Pavillon d'Armide (1907). For the Ballets Russes he designed Les Sylphides and Le Festin (1909), Giselle (1910), Petrushka (1911), and Song of the Nightingale (1914). His career as a designer continued long after he parted from Diaghilev, and he subsequently worked with Ida Rubinstein's company (Bolero, Le Baiser de la fée, and Nocturne), the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo (Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, 1932, Graduation Ball and Nutcracker, 1940, Raymonda, 1946), and London Festival Ballet (Nutcracker and Graduation Ball, 1957). His flair as a designer was for delicate and historically accurate stage settings, although he will always be remembered most for the colourful folkloric designs of Petrushka. Author of Reminiscences of the Russian Ballet (London, 1941) and Memoirs (2 vols., London, 1960 and 1964).

Portrait of Alexandre Benois by Leon Bakst, 1898

Alexandre Nikolayevich Benois (Russian: Алекса́ндр Никола́евич Бенуа, also spelled Alexander Benois) (3 May [O.S. 21 April] 1870^[1], St. Petersburg–9 February 1960, Paris), an influential artist, art critic, historian, preservationist, and founding member of Mir iskusstva. His influence on the modern ballet and stage design is considered seminal.

He was born into the artistic and intellectual Benois family, prominent members of the nineteenth and early twentieth century Russian intelligentsia. Alexandre's father Nicholas Benois and brother Leon Benois were noted Russian architects. Alexandre didn't plan to devote his life to art and graduated from the Faculty of Law, St. Petersburg University in 1894. Three years later, while in Versailles, he painted a series of watercolors depicting Last Promenades of Louis XIV. When exhibited by Pavel Tretyakov in 1897, they brought him to attention of Sergei Diaghilev and Leon Bakst. Together they founded the art magazine and movement Mir iskusstva which aimed at promoting the Aesthetic Movement and Art Nouveau in Russia.

During the first decade of the new century, Benois continued to edit Mir iskusstva but also pursued his scholarly interests. He prepared and printed several monographs on the 19th-century Russian art and Tsarskoye Selo. From 1918 to 1926, he ran the gallery of Old Masters in the Hermitage Museum, to which he secured his brother's heirloom—Leonardo's Madonna Benois. In 1903, he printed his illustrations to Pushkin's Bronze Horseman which have since been recognized as one of the landmarks in the genre.

In 1901, Benois was appointed scenic director of the Mariinsky Theatre. Since then, he devoted most of his time to stage design and decor. Sets and costumes he designed for Ballets Russes productions of Les Sylphides (1909), Giselle (1910), and Petrushka (1911) are counted among his greatest triumphs. Although he worked primarily with Diaghilev for the Ballets Russes, he simultaneously collaborated with the Moscow Art Theatre and other notable theatres of Europe.

His brother Albert Benois's son, Nikolai, was married to opera singer Maria Kuznetsova. He was the uncle of Russian artists Eugene Lanceray and Zinaida Serebriakova, and the great-uncle of British actor Sir Peter Ustinov.

His Memoirs were published in two volumes in 1955.

Works

Promenade of Empress Elizabeth through the Noble Streets of St. Petersburg, 1903	Illustration to Alexander Pushkin's Bronze Horseman, 1904	Soldiers of Catherine II	Peter the Great Meditating the Idea of Building St. Petersburg at the Shore of the Baltic Sea
Military Parade of Emperor Paul in front of Mikhaylovsky Castle, 1907	Set for Stravinsky's Petrushka, 1911	At the German Quarter, 1911

Notes

1. ^ Various sources, e.g. Encyclopedia Britannica, give his birth date as 21 April (Julian)/4 May (Gregorian). This cannot be correct; it implies a 13-day gap between the calendars, however in 1870 the gap was merely 12 days.

Bibliography

• Katerina Clark, Petersburg: Crucible of the Cultural Revolution (Cambridge, MA, 1995).
• John E. Bowlt, The Silver Age: Russian Art of the Early Twentieth Century and the “World of Art” Group (Newtonville, MA, 1982).
• Janet Kennedy, The Mir Iskusstva Group and Russian Art, 1898-1912 (New York, 1978).
• Sergei Makovskii, Stranitsy khudozhestvennoi kritiki – Kniga vtoraia: Sovremennye Russkie khudozhniki (Petersburg, 1909).
• Gregory Stroud, Retrospective Revolution: A History of Time and Memory in Urban Russia, 1903-1923 (Urbana-Champaign, 2006).

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