Ivan Bilibin

In the introduction the author looks at the education and experience that shaped the artist{u2019}s work: his training in the 1890s in the art school of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts in St. Petersburg, his study of art in Munich in 1898, his exhibiting with artists of the World of Art in the first years of the twentieth century. She also notes his understanding and knowledge of art outside Russia: Scandinavian and Finnish artistic rendering of folklore, English book art and illustration, and Japanese engraving. Bilibin like other artists of the World of Art sought to efface boundaries between genres: he painted and drew, illustrated and designed books, sketched costumes and sets for theater, and experimented with photography. Examples of Bilibin{u2019}s work in all these areas are presented in this handsomely produced survey. -- Summary written by John W. Emerich, Bronze Horseman Literary Agency.