#diaghilev

[diemelusine]

Portrait of Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev (1904) by Valentin Serov. Russian Museum.

[apollonicheskoye]

"Mikhail Fokin and Vera Fokina in the ballet "Carnival"" by Mikhail Bobyshov, 1916.

"Mikhail Fokin as Harlequin" by Mikhail Bobyshov, 1918.

The Fokins (Vera and Mikhail) in their theatrical costumes for the balett ''Carnival'', set to music by Schumann. Diaghilev's company.

[fashionbooksmilano]

Set and costume designs for ballet and theater

The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection

Alexander Schouvaloff, introduction Serge Lifar

General editor Simon De Pury

The Vendome Press, New York 1987, 268 pages, 24,5x30cm, ISBN 0-865-076-4

euro 80,00

email if you want to buy [email protected]

During his lifetime the late Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza acquired a collection of over fifty drawings - largely of set and costume designs - reflecting the theatre of the first half of the twentieth century, and particularly the ballet, during what was surely its most exciting and innovative period. Twenty-two of these drawings are by Leon Bakst, perhaps the most famous of all theatrical designers, whose revolutionary designs for Diaghilev's Ballet Russes played such a major part in the impact that company made during the years 1909-1929.

16/11/24

[pantalon-et-colombine]

René Bull

1913

Illustration for the ballet "Le Carnaval"in The Russian Ballet by A. E. Johnson; with Illustrations by René Bull

The illustration above is from the book The Russian Ballet published in London. The book features 17 important ballets from the early years of Diaghilev and is illustrated throughout with color and black & white illustrations by René Bull. A chapter in the book is devoted entirely to Anna Pavlova.

René Bull was an illustrator born in Dublin who went to Paris to study engineering but embarked on an artistic career instead. He contributed sketches and political cartoons to various publications in Ireland and London and, in 1898, he became a war photographer and artist for the “Black and White” illustrated newspaper. He was wounded in 1900 while covering the Boer War and returned to England where he worked as a cartoonist for various magazines. He is most appreciated today for his book illustrations, starting with an edition of Fontaine’s Fables. Other major titles he illustrated included The Arabian Nights (1912), Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (1913), The Russian Ballet (1913), Carmen (1915), and Andersen’s Fairy Tales (1915).

[feminineforms]

"Tamara Karsavina as the Firebird in Mikhail Fokine's ballet 'L'Oiseau de feu'" (1918) by Adrian Paul Allinson

Painting by Adrian Paul Allinson of Tamara Karsavina as the Firebird in Mikhail Fokine’s L’oiseau de feu (The Firebird) ca. 1918. The painting shows the Firebird in the Bakst-designed costume against the set designed by Alexander Golovine. Bakst later redesigned the costumes for the principals, but the set and remaining costumes were in use until 1926, when the production was redesigned by Natalia Goncharova. This is a rare example of a painting of the Diaghilev Ballet which shows the dancer on stage in the setting and is an important record of how the ballet looked on stage. Tamara Karsavina created the role of the Firebird in Mikhail Fokine's ballet to Igor Stravinsky's first score for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes on 25 June 1910 at the Théâtre National de l’Opéra, Paris. It was first performed in London on 18 June 1912 at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London. The Firebird choreographed by Mikhail Fokine to Igor Stravinsky's first score composed for Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes was the last ballet on the first programme by Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes that Cyril Beaumont saw (either 18th or 24th) June 1912. Tamara Karsavina, who created the role of the mythical bird is seen en pointe under the tree of golden apples. As Karsavina explained when writing about The Firebird in The Dancing Times May 1954 'The bird of prey, endowed with a magic power, whose plumage is almost too dazzling to behold, comes every night at dawn to steal golden apples off the tree'. The elaborate gates to the enclosure may be seen in the background. In the Diaghilev Ballet in London Beaumont described Karsavina’s appearance. ‘The costume which Bakst had designed for her was a charming conception, a woman’s head and shoulders emerging from a bird-like body. She wore a greenish bodice, the top trimmed with feathers, the lower ending in a mass of swansdown fitting close to the hips. Over her pink tights she wore trousers of fine orange gauze which, as they caught the light, made her legs seem to emanate an orange glow. Her hair was dressed in two long plaits which fell over her breast, while her head was covered with a cap decorated with curved feathers.’ The headdress in the painting appears higher than in photographs and the strings of pearls from ear-to-ear are noticeable. Beaumont in Impressions of the Russian Ballet L’Oiseau de feu (1919) that at the start of the ballet, ‘In the performances given prior to the War, the stage was darkened completely except where the golden tree was bathed in a circle of orange light.’

[lanativite]

Ballets Russes meme dump part 3

[philoursmars]

Marseille en mai. Au MuCEM, Il y avait une très plaisante expo sur le monde du cirque : "En scène!" .

Alternés avec du matériel de clown (perruques, chaussures, ... :

Pablo Picasso - "Hommage à Diaghilev"

Alexandre Benois - "Le Montreur d'Ours", étude costume pour "Petrouchka"

Niki de Sant-Phalle - affiche pour le Cirque Knie

Charles Van Craeynest - panneaux de baraque foraine - 1947

[alwaysalwaysalwaysthesea]

Serge Lifar and Félia Dubrovska in George Balanchine's production of Le Fils prodigue for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, costumes by Rouault. From the July 1929 French Vogue.

(source: Gallica)