Sergei Diaghilev

Russian impresario, curator, publisher, critic. Born in the family of Lieutenant General Pavel Dyagilev (1848–1914) and Yevgenia Yevreinova (1848–1872) in the village of Selischi in Novgorod Province (1872). Studied law at St Petersburg University (1890–96). Started writing as an art critic (1896). Wrote a monograph on Dmitry Levitsky (1902). Published and edited the World of Art (Mir iskusstva) magazine with Alexander Benois (1898–1904). Functionary for special commissions at the Department of Imperial Theatres and editor of the Imperial Theatres Annual (1899–1901). Curated exhibitions of German and Scottish Watercolourists (1897), Scandinavian Exhibition (1897), Exhibition of Russian and Finnish Artists (1898), World of Art (1899–1903, 1906), Exhibition of Historical Russian Portraits at the Tauride Palace in St Petersburg (1905) and L’Exposition de l’Art Russe at the Salon d’Automne in Paris, Berlin, Monte Carlo and Venice (1906–07). Held the Russian Historical Concerts in Paris (1907) and performances of Russian opera and ballet known as the Saisons Russes (1908–29). Formed Les Ballets Russes de Serge de Diaghilev (1911), which toured widely across Europe and North and South America (1911–29). Collected rare books in the final years of his life (late 1920s). Died of diabetes at the Grand Hôtel des Bains in Venice and buried at the Cimitero di San Michele (1929).