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America in the eyes of the artists, actors and musicians of the Silver Age of Russian culture was an enigmatic and fabulously rich country - a country to go to on a tour or to earn money. Only a handful of such artists gradually came to view the New World as not just a source of income but also as a special cultural hub with distinct traditions and roots. One such was Léon Bakst, the Russian artist of international renown who spent the second half of his life in France.

The introduction of graphic advertisement posters in the second half of the 19th-century outdoor urban space became an important historical and art phenomenon. Today, its significance and well- deserved influence are beyond dispute. Displayed in public places, graphic posters exercised a defining influence over the tastes of society. However, the poster played an even greater role in the evolution of art as it attracted the most avant-garde ideas and embodied the essence of various art movements and styles. Symbolism entered the “metropolitan landscape” with the posters of Puvis de Chavannes and Aman-Jean. “Le Style Moderne”, Art Nouveau, Jugendstil, and Sezessionstil - the last style of the end of the 19th century in its many local incarnations appeared on the streets of European cities and captured the imagination of millions by way of advertisement posters by Aubrey Beardsley and Walter Crane, Alphonse Mucha and Eugene Grasset, Franz von Stuck and Gustav Klimt.