Although Benois worked primarily with
Diaghilev for the Ballets Russes, he simultaneously collaborated with the Moscow Art Theatre and other notable theatres of Europe.
Alexandre's father Nicholas Benois and brother Leon Benois were noted Russian architects. Alexandre didn't plan to devote his life to art and graduated from the Faculty of Law, St. Petersburg University in 1894. Three years later, while in Versailles, he painted a series of watercolors depicting Last Promenades of Louis XIV. When exhibited by Pavel Tretyakov in 1897, they brought him to attention of
Sergei Diaghilev and
Leon Bakst. Together they founded the art magazine and movement
Mir Iskusstva which aimed at promoting the Aesthetic Movement and Art Nouveau in Russia.
In 1901, Benois was appointed scenic director of the
Mariinsky Theatre where he devoted most of his time to stage design and decor. He also designed sets and costumes for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes productions of Les Sylphides in 1909, Giselle in 1910, and
Petrouchka in 1911. Alexandre Benois was Artistic Director of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. He resigned that position after a fight with Leon Bakst. A panel of scenery with the portrait of the Charlatan he painted for the ballet
Petrouchka had been damaged during dress rehearsal and Benois was ill so he asked Bakst to repair it for him. Bakst painted over the image replacing it with his own, the two men argued, Diaghilev and others defended Bakst, and Benois quit.
Benois edited
Mir Iskusstva but also pursued his scholarly interests preparing and printing several monographs on the 19th-century Russian art and Tsarskoye Selo. In 1903, he printed his illustrations to Pushkin's Bronze Horseman. From 1918 to 1926, he ran the gallery of Old Masters in the Hermitage Museum, to which he secured his brother's heirloom—Leonardo's Madonna Benois.
