This architectural conception, the best possible setting for the actor and for the “round relief” which the human body forms, especially determined the grandiose and graceful setting for the ballet “The Sleeping Beauty”,--this French masterpiece born of the soil of Russia which is fertile in miracles. In this work, the production of which was reserved for London, Bakst returns squarely to the surprises afforded by extraordinary short=cuts, to the harmony of masses that are organized, to the magic play of stage elevations raised in tiers, to the severe splendors of linear perspective. We see him, after a century of realistic still=life deception, taking up again the work of the great decorators and architects, of the geometricians [Illustration: A WOMAN LYING. TOUCHED UP DRAWING] of theatrical vision, whether their names be Gonzaga or Bibiena, whether Sanquirico or Ciceri. [Illustration: PORTRAIT OF THE POET JEAN COCTEAU] This masterpiece, concerning which the author of these lines has written a book, is a free “capriccio” of the Great Age when Tiepolo [Illustration: PORTRAIT OF THE DANCER M.] brushed elbows with Mansart. “Artémis troublée”, a ballet produced at the Opera during the spring of the present year, is a graceful mythological play springing from a similar set of ideas. I am far from having exhausted the plentiful material of these innumerable works, for during almost a quarter of a century Bakst has [Illustration: PORTRAIT OF THE PAINTER GOLOVINE] initiated numerous productive ideas. He discovers new veins but is ever ready, after a few blows with the pick=axe, to abandon them to those who follow him. Is it not he who dares introduce the modern sportive costume to the lyric stage as a decorative and expressive element? Remember the “Jeux” which he undertook with Nijinsky! And was not this vogue for things Venetian of the eighteenth century, for the Venice of Pietro [Illustration: LVII PORTRAIT OF IDA RUBINSTEIN] [Illustration: LVIII A CALL (POSTER FOR AN EXHIBITION AT VIENNA). (GOUACHE)] [Illustration: LIX A LIVING MODEL. RED CHALK AND CHALK] [Illustration: LX THE “BOUTIQUE FANTASQUE” BALLET. AN ITALIAN DOLL] [Illustration: THE COMPOSER BALAKIREV. DRAWING. (THE TRETIAKOFF MUSEUM, MOSCOW)] Longhi and of Guardi, this vogue for beauty and for the fan called forth by his exhilarating “Women of Good Humour” in which, with the greatest unconcern, Bakst exchanges the toe=slippers of the pasha with the red shoe=heels of Giacomo Casanova? [Illustration: PORTRAIT OF THE MARCHESA CASATI TOUCHED UP DRAWING] And lastly, was not his intervention decisive in bringing about a transformation of feminine costumes? These sketches of gowns constitute an epoch in the history of fashion, and they afford an access to painters into this domain from which they have been excluded ever since the days of Gavarni. For [Illustration: SKETCH]