Page:Benois - The Russian School of Painting (1916).djvu/265

 Kiev are almost exclusively book-decorators. They have brought a quickening stream of talent into the musty atmosphere of our book industry, and owing to them we are witnessing now a sort of rebirth, or rather birth, of the Russian book.

The most many-sided of these artists is Lanceray. The field of his art is large. He is very successful in purely decorative subjects, which he executes, either in some definite old style or in the manner created by himself by means of the most delicate study of nature. But Lanceray is equally a master in his illustrations,—figurative commentaries to the thought of a poet or scientist. In this sphere he reaches a keenness of impression, a dramatic power, a mastery of masses, and an historical penetration which remind one of Mentzel. His best illustrations have so far been those to Kutepov's "Czars' Hunt" and to our own book, "Tzarskoye Selo." Serious consideration should be given, also, to his scenes of old Petrograd, his various vignettes in the periodical Mir Iskusstva (The World of Art) and in other editions of Dyagilev's, and even the "Breton Tales"—the work of his youth.

Bilibin is the Petrograd version of the artistic current which was represented in Moscow by Miss Polyenov. Early in his career Bilibin even imitated her, acquiring from her merits as well as defects. By and