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The eight following watercolours are recorded in David McNeil's inventory as being dated 1967, a few years after the designs Chagall produced for the Magic Flute. Nevertheless, the style and subject suggest that they relate in fact to two other costume designs (M 610-611) which were commissioned in 1932 by Bronislava Nizinskaja, the sister of the ballet dancer Vaclav Nijinsky's. Chagall probably agreed to work on the project as he was a close friend of Nijinsky's and they had studied together at the Svanseva School. Nizinskaja had abandoned her ballet and drama career by the 1960s, but in 1932 she had planned to stage a ballet on Beethoven's music. The ballet would have been divided into three parts, the first dedicated to the French Revolution, the second to Russia and the third to Greece. However, the ambitious project was never performed, yet the faithful artist executed these beautiful eight costume designs to finish the series. Chagall's experience in producing sets and costume designs goes back to the early 1920s in St. Petersburg when Nicolai Evrejnov asked him to design the scenery for the play Die Satisfied. A few months later, Chagall participated to the decoration and costume design for Gogol's play The Inspector-General. Chagall's encounter with Alexander Granovsky, the director of the Jewish Kamerny Theatre jeopardised the artist's production of stage designs. One of his most monumental projects was the mural decoration for the small auditorium of the Jewish Theatre, which soon came to be known as Chagall's Thorn. Chagall's other major stage designs were for the ballet Aleko by Léonide Massine on Tchaïckovsky's music, in New York and for Georges Skibine's ballet Daphnis et Chloé performed to Maurice Ravel's music. It is not surprising that all these various experiences with the theatre and ballet world enabled Chagall to produce his own stage in his paintings, where he acts not only as the 'designer' but more important as the 'director' of his own play. (fig. 1) Marc Chagall in front of the tapestry The Entry into Jerusalem made for the Knesset in Jerusalem. Archives Marc et Ida Chagall, Paris; © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London, 2007. (fig. 2) Marc Chagall inhis studio, 1942. Archives Marc et Ida Chagall, Paris; © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London, 2007.

Marc Chagall (1887-1985)

Etude de costume pour ballet d'opera 'Nidjinska' (Jeune fille au corset mauve)

Details

Marc Chagall (1887-1985)
Etude de costume pour ballet d'opera 'Nidjinska' (Jeune fille au corset mauve)
signed 'Marc Chagall' (lower right)
watercolour, wash and pencil on paper
9 x 5½ in. (22.7 x 14 cm.)
Executed in 1967

Provenance

David McNeil (the artist's son), Paris, by descent from the artist (no. B 193).
Acquired from the above by the present owners in 1987.

Literature

V. Rakitin, Chagall, Disegni inediti dalla Russia a Parigi, Milan, 1989 (illustrated p. 149).

Exhibited

Milan, Studio Marconi, Marc Chagall, Disegni inediti dalla Russia a Parigi, May - July 1988; this exhibition later travelled to Turin, Galleria della Sindone, Palazzo Reale, Dec. 1990 - Mar. 1991; Catania, Monastero dei Benedettini, Oct.- Nov. 1994; Meina, Museo e centro studi per il disegno, June - Aug. 1996.
Hannover, Sprengel Museum, Marc Chagall, "Himmel und Erde", Dec. 1996 - Feb. 1997.
Darmstadt, Institut Mathildenhöhe, Marc Chagall, Von Russland nach Paris, Zeichnungen 1906-1967, Dec. 1997 - Jan. 1998.
Abbazia Olivetana, Fondazione Ambrosetti, Marc Chagall, Il messaggio biblico, May - July 1998.
Klagenfurt, Stadtgalerie, Marc Chagall, Feb.- May 2000, p. 134 (ill.).
Florida, Boca Raton Museum of Art, Chagall, Jan. - Mar. 2002.

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 15% on the buyer's premium

Lot Essay

This work is sold with a photo-certificate from David McNeil.

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