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.

1908–1911

Artistic director of the Russian Seasons

Becomes artistic director of Sergei Diaghilev's Russian Seasons, which made Russian ballet famous abroad; under his direction Konstantin Korovin, Nicholas Roerich, Bakst and Alexander Golovin work in the theatre.