Fantaisie sur un costume moderne, Dioné

Details

LÉON BAKST (1866-1924)
Fantaisie sur un costume moderne, Dioné
pencil, watercolor and gouache, heightened with silver, on paper
17 3/8 x 10 1/2 in. (44 x 26.7 cm.)
Executed in 1922

Provenance

Collection of Iain Harrison, England.
with The Fine Art Society, London, by 1976.
Acquired from the above by Ann and Gordon Getty in February 1995.

Literature

Exhibition catalogue, Bakst: Centenary Exhibition 1876-1976, London and Edinburgh, 1976, illustrated p. 11, listed p. 50, no. 108.
C. Spencer, Léon Bakst and the Ballets Russes, London, 1995, illustrated p. 176, listed p. 222, no. 265.
C. Spencer, Bakst in Greece, Athens, 2009, illustrated p. 176.
E. Bespalova, Bakst v Parizhe [Bakst in Paris], Moscow, 2016, illustrated p. 85, listed p. 247, no. 76.

Exhibited

London and Edinburgh, The Fine Art Society, Bakst: Centenary Exhibition 1876-1976, 21 August-11 September and 16 September-9 October 1976, no. 108 (label on the backboard).
New York, Davis & Long Company, Léon Bakst, 2-26 February 1977, no. 39 (label on the backboard).
San Antonio, McNay Art Institute, Bakst, 15 March 1977-17 April 1977, no. 39 (labels on the backboard).
Possibly, London, The Fine Art Society, Bakst and the Ballets Russes, 13 November-15 December 1995 (label on the backboard).

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Elizabeth Seigel Vice President, Specialist, Head of Private and Iconic Collections

eseigel@christies.com +1 212 484 4812

Lot Essay

Besides working in theatre design, Bakst was interested in fashion and some of his designs for women’s fashion and textiles were reproduced in popular fashion magazines like Journal des Dames et des Modes of the time. Bakst made a version of the current fashion design without the blue veil in 1912, and it was realized as a dress by the fashion house Paquin. In 1922 the artist returned to some of his 'fantasies', including Dioné, and made them in a larger size, adding colorful Art Deco style veils around the figures. A similar work from 1922, Alcyone is in the collection of the Museum of Theatre and Music, St. Petersburg.

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