Somnium Breve. Stikhi (A Dream Writ. Poems)

Parizh (Paris): La Presse Francaise et Etrangere, 1948. Softcover. Limited edition of 50 numbered copies (this one unnumbered); 5 3/4 x 4 1/2; pp. [6], 9-126; beige, card stock wraps, printed and illustrated in brown; a few small nicks to tips of spine and edges of back wrap; light creasing to corners; cover art and design by Aleksandr Serebriakov; very good or better condition.Sergei Konstantinovich Makovskii (1877 - 1962) was a poet, art critic, and the son of renowned artist Konstantin Makovskii. From 1909 until 1913, he was the editor of the influential journal Apollon and worked with some of the brightest Modernists of the times. Makovskii went into exile in Paris after the Revolution and continued writing, publishing, and being heavily involved with the Russian emigre literary elite abroad until his death. The graphic artist, who designed the covert art of the book, Alexander Borisovich Serebriakov (1907–1995), was one of the famous Benois family of artists and musicians. His mother was one of the first female Russian painters of distinction, Zinaida Evgenevna Serebriakova, and his cousin was one of the founding members of Mir isskustva, Aleksandr Benois. He moved to Paris with his mother in 1925, where he worked with Nikolai and Aleksandr Benois on theater designs for Ida Rubinstein and Boris Kokhno. He also illustrated numerous books in French, English, and Russian, painted portraits, designed architectural landmarks, and co-founded the Society for the Preservation of the Russian Cultural Property Abroad.