Aleksander Bilibin was born in St Petersburg, Russian Empire (now Russia), to Russian-English parents, both of whom were artists, in 1903. As a schoolboy he became deaf following complications from scarlet fever, prompting his mother to travel to Europe with her two sons to seek treatment for Bilibin's hearing loss, resulting in their eventual settling in England following the Russian Revolution of October 1917. Bilibin studied at the Central School of Arts and Crafts and the Royal Academy of Arts, afterwards working as a painter, watercolourist and set designer and exhibiting regularly, including at the Royal Academy of Arts and with The London Group.
Painter, watercolour artist and set designer Aleksandr Bilibin was born on the 22 January 1903 in St Petersburg, Russian Empire (now Russia) to Russian father Ivan Bilibin and English mother Maria Chambers-Bilibina, both of whom were artists. His father was a prominent book illustrator and set designer, member of the Mir iskusstva [The World of Art] group (1898–1904; 1910–24), which organised exhibitions and published a famous art periodical under the same title. Bilibin attended the Third Classical Gymnasium in St Petersburg. As a schoolboy he contracted scarlet fever and lost his hearing as a result of complications from the disease. In 1914 his mother took him and his younger brother Ivan to Switzerland, to attempt medical treatment for his hearing loss. The three became stranded in Europe following the outbreak of the First World War and spent time with family friends in Italy. In late 1916 they travelled to Paris, and in January 1917 they reached England. Their plan was to subsequently return to Russia via Scandinavia; however, because of Bilibin's mother's English origins, they were allowed to prolong their stay and eventually settled in England following the Russian Revolution of October 1917. Bilibin studied at the Private School for Deaf Boys in Northampton, where sign language was not taught, and the focus, instead, was on speech therapy. As a result, he could lip-read English, French and his mother's Russian. He later enrolled at the Central School of Arts and Crafts (now Central St Martins, a constituent college of the University of the Arts London), where he studied under Charles Henry Sims, Walter Sickert and Arthur Ambrose McEvoy; in 1924–29 he also studied at the Royal Academy of Arts. Between 1927 and 1936 Bilibin regularly visited his father, who, by that time, was living in Paris, and studied drawing under his supervision. In 1936 he also collaborated with him on designs for the Dormition Church at the Olšany Cemetery in Prague, Czechoslovakia.
In England, Bilibin became friends with Alfred Reginald Thomson RA, who, like him, was deaf and dumb. He worked as a set designer for a number of dance companies, including for the USA-based Mikhail Mordkin Ballet. He also produced paintings and watercolours, including of various London scenes. In 1925 his oil painting Rue Mont St. Cenis, Montmartre was included in the exhibition of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters & Gravers and in 1928 he showed his designs alongside Russian émigré artist, Eugene Mollo, at the Literary Book Company, London. In 1931 he participated in the Exhibition of the Russian Group at Prince Vladimir Galitzine Gallery in Mayfair, London, and his work Hyde Park was singled out for praise in The Times. He also exhibited with The London Group (1935 and 1937) and the Salon International des Artistes Silencieux in Brussels (1930). Bilibin's London scenes were shown at several iterations of the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in the 1940s and 1950s. In 1941 he made the set designs for an unrealised production by Michel Fokine of Edgar Allan Poe's The Masque of the Red Death.
Bilibin was a life member of the Chelsea Arts Club and, every year until 1958, he executed curtain decorations for the Club's famous annual New Year's Eve Ball. These schemes included the theme ‘Flaming Youth’ from designs by Gerald Moira and Charles Wheeler in 1937 (a drawing by Bilibin of the design’s centrepiece was reproduced in The Sketch in December of the same year). He also collaborated frequently with Thomson on the Ball’s décor, including in 1950 when he painted the canvas backcloth, 65 feet high and 144 feet wide, from his friend’s design, on the theme of the Crystal Palace of 1851. Bilibin was also a member of the Royal Society of Watercolour Artists. He often collaborated with a number of British cinema production companies. In particular, he worked on elaborate grillework design for the partnership Mollo and Egan – founded by Mollo and French-born architect Michael Egan – which specialised in interior designs for cinemas. In 1963 Bilibin married to Gwendoline Gervis, and in 1967 the pair moved to Harting, near Petersfield in Hampshire. Bilibin continued working as an artist, predominantly painting local landscapes. In 1969 Bilibin became a naturalised British subject. Aleksander Bilibin died in Harting, Hampshire, England on 10 October 1972 from a heart attack and is buried in locally. His paintings, drawings and works from his studio were offered at auction by Sotheby’s in 1974. In 1993 the University of Brighton Gallery held a retrospective exhibition. His work is not currently represented in any UK public collections.