Costume design for 'Liturgie': Archangel Gabriel

Details

Natalia Goncharova (1881-1962)
Costume design for 'Liturgie': Archangel Gabriel
signed and dated 'N. Gontcharova 1915.' (lower right) and inscribed 'Cherubin' (lower left)
pochoir with gouache on card
28 1/8 x 19½ in. (71.4 x 49.6 cm.)
Executed circa 1914

Provenance

A gift from the artist to John Carr Doughty, London and Leicester.

Special notice

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent. These lots have been imported from outside the EU for sale using a Temporary Import regime. Import VAT is payable (at 5%) on the Hammer price. VAT is also payable (at 20%) on the buyer’s Premium on a VAT inclusive basis. When a buyer of such a lot has registered an EU address but wishes to export the lot or complete the import into another EU country, he must advise Christie's immediately after the auction.

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Lot Essay

Inspired by his travels through Northern Italy in 1915-16, Sergei Diaghilev began working with Léonide Massine shortly after on an idea for a ballet based on the art and religious rites of the Renaissance and of Byzantium. Goncharova was commissioned to produce designs based on the music of Russian Church Plain Chant for a performance which was to comprise of a series of moving tableaux narrating the life of Christ through music and dance. While the production did not come to fruition, the pochoirs subsequent created from some of her finest designs testify to the visionary nature of the project.

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