ALEXANDER NIKOLAEVICH BENOIS (1870-1960)
Painter, graphic artist, historian of art, n art critic, museum worker. Being a student of the faculty of law at the St.-Petersburg University he attended classes of The Academy of Arts. From 1896 he started to take part in exhibitions of water-color painters. He studied Western-European arts in Paris (1896-1999) . In 1900 he taught the history of ornament at Baron Stieglitz Central School for Technical Draftsmanship. He edited " The Art Treasures of Russia ". In 1906 he was awarded the order of the Legion of Honour (France). He worked at the largest theatres of St. Petersburg, Moscow, Paris, London, New York, Milan, at the theater enterprise of S.P.Dyaghilev in Paris. He was one of the organizers and the main ideologist of union " The World of Art ". After 1926 he lived in Paris.