Costume design for 'Le Dieu Bleu': Bayadère

Details

LÉON BAKST (1866-1924)
Costume design for 'Le Dieu Bleu': Bayadère
signed and dated 'BAKST/1911' (lower left) and inscribed with production title and character (upper left)
pencil, ink, watercolor and gouache, heightened with gold, on paper
12 1/8 x 9 in. (28.3 x 22.8 cm.)

Provenance

Collection of Martin Birnbaum (1878-1970), New York.
Anonymous sale; Christian de Quay, Paris, 8 June 1994, lot 120.
with The Fine Art Society, London.
Acquired from the above by Ann and Gordon Getty in 1995.

Literature

Programme officiel des Ballets Russes: Septième Saison, Paris, May 1912, illustrated p. [39].
A. Alexandre, L’Art decoratif de Léon Bakst, The Fine Art Society, London, 1913, reproduced as a lithograph in the folio, pl. 11.
C. Beaumont, Five Centuries of Ballet Design, London, 1939, illustrated p. 118.
C. Spencer, Léon Bakst, London, 1973, illustrated p. 99, listed p. 230, no. 73 (erroneously dated to 1912).
A. Alexandre, The Decorative Art of Léon Bakst, New York, 1971, illustrated pl. 11, listed p. [vi].

Exhibited

Possibly, London, The Fine Art Society, Bakst and the Ballets Russes, 13 November-15 December 1995.

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

Le Dieu Bleu was a one-act ballet created by the librettists Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) and Federicode Madrazo y Ochoa (1875-1934) for Sergei Diaghilev’s (1872-1929) Ballets Russes. The production was designed by Bakst and choreographed by Michel Fokine (1880-1942), starring Vaclav Nijinsky (1889-1950) in the lead role of 'The Blue God', Tamara Karsavina (1885-1978) as the 'Young girl' and Bronislava Nijinska (1891-1972) as 'The Drunken Temple Dancer'. The premiere took place on 13 May 1912 at Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, but, with the exception of Bakst’s lauded designs, was not well received.

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