Dimitri Bouchene was a Russian painter and stage designer. He was born in 1893 in Saint-Tropez in France to a notable aristocratic family.

In 1912 Bouchene finished the 2^nd St. Petersburg Gymnasium. He was the youngest artist among the renowned miriskusniki who spent the rest of their lives in emigration.

Anna Akhmatova, who made the acquaintance of then eighteen-year-old Bouchene in 1911, admired his talent. Bouchene painted Akhmatova many times before he left Russia and many years later he and his best friend Sergei Ernst, an art critic, arranged a reception for her in Paris. Bouchene and Zinaida Serebriakova had sympathy towards each other. Serebriakova’s well-known portrait of young Bouchene (1922) is filled with charm, light and energy. In 1931 they had joint exhibitions in Brussels and Antwerp, where Bouchene displayed his landscapes, circus scenes and images of acrobats and clowns.

Renowned, in the first place, as a stage designer, Dimitri Bouchene was part of the generation of artists who represented the “golden age” of the Russian stage design in Paris.

Bouchene started his career abroad by drawing fabric patterns and clothing designs for major French fashion houses, including Jean Patou, Nina Ricci, Jeanne Lanvin and Lucien Lelong.

In the late 1920s Bouchene met Anna Pavlova, the great Russian ballerina, and began to design costumes for her performances.

Critics wrote that Bouchene’s costumes were beautiful, despite significant historical inaccuracies. The grasping effect of these theatrical projects and the mystique were always more important to him than a documentary account.

At the same time Bouchene continued to paint landscapes and still lifes. A series of brilliant gouaches reveals a new, little-known Bouchene. His poetical landscape “suites” refer to the 18^th century Italian painting and to compositional findings of Francesco Guardi, Canaletto and Hubert Robert. Bouchene’s floral compositions are as theatrical as his costume designs. His magnificent bouquets remind of dancers in splendid garments who dazzle by their sophisticated lines and bold colours.