Сказка об Иване-царевиче, жар-птице и о сером волке

Expédition de l'approvisionnement des papiers d'État, Saint-Pétersbourg 1901, 26 x 33 cm, stapled
First edition and first print of 8 drawings, 3 of them full page from Ivan Bilibine.
Pleasant and rare copy in this condition.

Ivan Yakovlevitch Bilibine (Иван Яковлевич Билибин 1876-1942) was a painter and illustrator from St Petersburg. Student of the painter Repine, he studied art and worked for two years with him before travelling to Europe. Back to Russia, he founded with Leon Bakst the group Mir Iskousstva (Мир Искусства “The World of Art”), an artistic movement enhancing encounters between artists and writers. From then on, he threw himself into the artistic adventure of his life, the illustration of traditional Russian tales thus creating “the Bilibine style” featuring all his works during his career.
Concerned about implementing the appropriate graphic process, he carried out documented and extensive research, collected loubok (Лубок popular Russian pictures) and became enthusiastic for ornamental miniatures and for the resplendence of icons colors, typical of the seventeenth century. He drew his inspiration from embroideries and printed fabric. However, Bilibine did not confine himself into Russian folkloric culture; after gaining valuable experience from his expeditions in Europe but also in the East (he lived particularly several years in Egypt), he enjoyed mixing Russian and Oriental patterns, wishing to create a new language: the graphic language. The modernity of his style allowed him to meet great success and respond to illustration requests, tales and bylines (были́ны oral tradition epical tales) but also theater (sets and costumes).
Bilibine gives as careful attention to “decoration” of his work (vignettes, block titles, frames) as to watercolors, subtly highlighted with a black line, outlined in gold.