Ivan Bilibin

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"Portrait of Bilibin I. Ya." by Boris Kustodiev, 1901.

Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin (Russian: Ива́н Я́ковлевич Били́бин; August 16, 1876 – February 7, 1942) was one of the most influential 20th-century illustrators and stage designers who took part in the Mir iskusstva and contributed to the Ballets Russes. Throughout his career, he was strongly inspired by Slavic folklore.

Ivan Bilibin was born in a suburb of St. Petersburg. He studied first in 1898 at Anton Aschbe Art School in Munich, then under Ilya Repin in St. Peterburg^[1]. In 1902-1904 Bilibin travelled in the Russian North, where he became fascinated with old wooden architecture and Russian folklore. He published his findings in the monograph Folk Arts of the Russian North in 1904. Another major influence on his art was traditional Japanese prints.

Bilibin gained renown in 1899, when he released his innovative illustrations of Russian fairy tales. During the Russian Revolution of 1905, he executed revolutionary cartoons. He was also the designer for the 1909 première production of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's The Golden Cockerel. The October Revolution, however, proved alien to him. After brief stints in Cairo and Alexandria, he settled in Paris in 1925. There he took to decorating private mansions and Orthodox churches. He still longed for his homeland and, after decorating the Soviet Embassy in 1936, he returned to Soviet Russia. He delivered lectures in the Soviet Academy of Arts until 1941. Bilibin died during the Siege of Leningrad.

[edit] Selected works

The merchants visit Tsar Saltan 1905	Stage-set for the opera The Golden Cockerel 1909	Tsar Dadon meets the Shemakha queen (illustration to The Tale of the Golden Cockerel, 1906)	The Tale of Igor's Campaign
Baba Yaga from Vassilisa the Beautiful 1899	Red Horseman from Vasilisa the Beautiful 1899	Ivan Tsarevich catching the Firebird's feather 1899	Morozko
Island Buyan 1905	Dobrynya Nikitich rescues Zabava from the Gorynych	Ilya Muromets and Nightingale the Robber	Yaroslav the Wise
Alkonost	Justice of the Rus	Sadko	Dobrynya Nikitich slaying the Dragon Zmey Gorynych