Версаль

1887–1926 · Virkested

Saint Petersburg

1904

“Alphabet in Pictures”

Works for about a year on the “Alphabet in Pictures”, almost his only major work for children, playing with his two-year-old son Kolya as he draws. The censor's permission is dated 24 October 1904, and the book is printed in chromolithography with silver and gold at the Expedition for the Preparation of State Papers in 2,500 copies.

1905–1907 · Virkested

Paris

1905–1907

Second trip to France

During his second trip to France he prepares the publications “The Russian Museum of Emperor Alexander III” and “The Russian School of Painting”, works with the magazine Golden Fleece, prints his “Parisian Notes” in the newspaper Slovo and takes part in exhibitions in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Paris and Berlin. Other accounts say he moved to Paris in 1905 and from then on devoted himself chiefly to stage design.

1906

The “Russian Art Exhibition” in Paris

Following the Tauride exhibition of 1905, he organizes the “Russian Art Exhibition” in Paris together with Diaghilev and Bakst — an undertaking from which the theatrical Russian Seasons abroad will grow.

1907

Back to Saint Petersburg for “The Pavilion of Armida”

Returns to Saint Petersburg to work on the design of the one-act ballet “The Pavilion of Armida”, whose libretto he had written for Nikolai Tcherepnin back in 1903; the production did not go ahead at that time.