René Blum, An Art Criticism

223 Words1 Pages
On March 23, 1878, René Blum was born in Paris, France to a middle class Jewish family. An art critic, Blum had won a Croix de Guerre for saving multiple pieces of artwork from the Amiens Cathedral in WWI. Blum went on to form a new ballet company called Les Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo with Wassily de Basil as co-director. He trusted De Basil, a wild and exuberant man, who was good with publicity. De Basil traveled with the company which was successful in both America and Europe. De Basil, however, was thoughtless with money and soon burned through most of the theatre’s funds. The two had a falling out, and the company disintegrated after that. Blum formed another one after that, but by this time he was in ill health and had little money