Pour "Romeo et Juliette"

Jacques Dupin has confirmed the authenticity of this work.

In 1909, Sergei Diaghilev founded the Ballets Russes, a touring ballet company which performed throughout Europe and North and South America. It is regarded today as arguably the most influential ballet company of the twentieth century, with Diaghilev serving as the company’s revolutionary artistic director, championed for encouraging collaborative work among choreographers, composers, artists, designers, and dancers. Over the years, Diaghilev partnered with many artistic virtuosos including Igor Stravinsky, George Balanchine, Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, and Coco Chanel.

In 1926, surrealists Miró and Max Ernst, whose work Diaghilev admired and acquired in Paris, were commissioned to design the stage sets and costumes for Diaghilev's new Ballets Russes production of Romeo and Juliet, to be performed in Monte Carlo. Diaghilev's original plan for this production of Roméo et Juliette was a true-to-text telling of Shakespeare's story, for which he had engaged the young English composer Constant Lambert, and Lambert's friend Christopher Wood for the costume and set designs. Diaghilev soon changed his mind, however, and decided to adapt the plot to follow the story of a ballet company rehearsing Roméo et Juliette. To better suit his new production ideas, Diaghilev recruited Miró and Ernst in Wood’s stead. The ballet premiered on May 4th, 1926 with Serge Lifar (fig. 1) and Tamara Karsavina as principal dancers. The production was choreographed by Bronislava Nijinska, with an intermission choreographed by the legendary Balanchine.

The present work, Pour “Romeo et Juliette,” was gifted by the artist to Prince Alexandre Shervashidze, the set painter who assisted Miró with bringing to life the stage sets designed in collaboration with Ernst for this ballet. The French dedication inscribed on the work translates as follows: “For my friend Prince Schervachidze who has so admirably interpreted my work and charmed my stay in Monte Carlo.” Prince Shervashidze had similarly collaborated with other leading artists such as Georges Braque and André Derain in various Ballets Russes productions. Most notably in Le Train Bleu (choreography by Nijinska, costume designs by Chanel, and libretto by Jean Cocteau), he painted the colossal curtain designed by Picasso. The present work on paper was later owned by Lifar, who had served as an executor for Diaghilev’s legacy, and whose own distinguished collection included works by Picasso, Ernst, Miró, Juan Gris, and many others.

Pour “Romeo et Juliette” is composed of relatively few shapes which are essential to the tale of Romeo and Juliet. The black figure with flowing hair represents Juliet, and the rectangle with black and green crescent is a reminder of Juliet’s bedroom window through which the moon shines on the night of her romantic balcony encounter with Romeo. The purple-and-yellow-tipped arrow (perhaps bi-color to emphasize the contrast between the Capulet and Montague families), though reminiscent of Cupid’s love arrow, simultaneously pierces Juliet, drawing large red drops of blood and symbolizing her tragic death in the name of eternal love.

(fig. 1) Serge Lifar in Roméo et Juliette, 1926. Photograph by Man Ray.