Costume design for Tamara Karsavina as 'L'Oiseau de Feu'

Details

LÉON BAKST (1866-1924)
Costume design for Tamara Karsavina as 'L'Oiseau de Feu'
signed, inscribed with production title and dated 'BAKST/1910' (lower left)
pencil, watercolor and gouache, heightened with gold, on paper
13 3/4 x 8 5/8 in. (35 x 22 cm.)

Provenance

A. M. Otthoffer, Paris, by 1939.
with Galleria del Levante, Milan.
Collection of Mrs. Frederick Christian Havemeyer (1901-1982), New York.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 13 March 1980, lot 31.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 19 December 1996, lot 159.
Acquired at the above sale by Ann and Gordon Getty.

Literature

J. Péladan, 'Les arts du théatre. Un maître du costume et du décor: Léon Bakst', L’art decoratif, June 1911, no. 153, pp. 285-300, illustrated on separate plate.
A. Levinson, Bakst: The Story of the Artist's Life, London, 1923, illustrated pl. L, listed p. 240.
Exhibition catalogue, Ballets Russes de Diaghilew 1909 à 1929, Paris, 1939, illustrated on the cover, listed p. 13, no. 8.
C. Beaumont, Five Centuries of Ballet Design, London, 1939, illustrated p. [111].
F. Gadan and R. Maillard (eds.), A Dictionary of Modern Ballet, London, 1959, illustrated p. 151.
G. Oswald et. al., Stravinsky and the Dance. A Survey of Ballet Productions 1910-1962, New York, 1962, illustrated p. 15, no. 4.
I. Pruzhan, Lev Samoilovich Bakst, Leningrad, 1975, illustrated p. 149, listed p. 231.
Exhibition catalogue, Igor Stravinsky: La carrière européenne, Paris, 1980, listed p. 24, no. 52.
A. Schouvaloff and V. Borovsky, Stravinsky on Stage, London, 1982, illustrated p. 41.
I. Pruzhan (ed.), Léon Bakst: esquisses de décors et de costumes, art graphiques, peintures, Leningrad, 1986, illustrated p. [62], listed p. 232, no. 30.
A. Schouvaloff, Léon Bakst: The Theatre Art, London, 1991, illustrated and listed p. 64.
E. Bespalova, Bakst v Parizhe [Bakst in Paris], Moscow, 2016, illustrated p. 24, listed p. 244, no. 16.

Exhibited

Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Ballets Russes de Diaghilew 1909 à 1929, April-May 1939, no. 8.
Paris, Musée d’art modern de la ville de Paris, Igor Stravinsky: La carrière européenne, 14 October-30 November 1980, no. 59.

Conditions of sale

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

eseigel@christies.com +1 212 484 4812

Lot Essay

L’oiseau de feu [The Firebird] was first staged as a pas de deux in the suite of dances called Le Festin during the 1909 season of the Ballets Russes in Paris. Bakst designed the costumes for the two principal dancers - Tamara Karsavina (1885-1978) and Vaclav Nijinsky (1889-1950) - which were the earliest of his costume designs that the Western public saw.
The first performance of the expanded L’oiseau de feu by the Ballets Russes was at the Théâtre National de l’Opéra in Paris on 25 June 1910. Sergei Diaghilev (1872-1929) commissioned Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) to compose the music and Michel Fokine (1880-1942) - the choreography. Léon Bakst designed the costume for Karsavina who danced the part of the 'Firebird', while the artist Alexander Golovine (1863-1930) created the set and other costumes.

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