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Lot Essay
Born in the Tuscan town of Montemurlo, Brunelleschi first travelled to Florence, where he studied painting and sculpture at the Accademia di Belle Arti. In 1901, at the age of 22, the young artist moved to Paris, where he began to build his reputation, first as an illustrator, and later in set and costume design. Influenced by the bright colors of the Parisian posters, Brunelleschi, under the pseudonym Aroun-al-Rascid, started his commercial career by contributing to the periodical ‘Le Rire’, which had become famous in the late 19th Century through its connection to Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901).
It was during the 1920s that Brunelleschi would emerge as a respected set and costume designer. By 1928, his reputation would take his work to New York, where dancer and friend Léonide Massine (1896-1979) commissioned Brunelleschi to design the sets for four new ballets in celebration of the opening of the Roxy Theatre, New York (a large art-deco building with the capacity to show films, live performances and orchestral arrangements, operating from 1927 to 1960, and widely seen as the ‘older sister’ of the Radio City Music Hall at the Rockefeller Center).
The artist's relationship with the Roxy Theatre continued beyond the four ballets. The design in the present lot dates to around 1935 and is one of four backdrops created by the artist with the theme of ‘America’ (see Casalis, op. cit., p. 21 for another example, titled ‘Washington’). It is likely that this set design was used by the ‘Blue Bells’ in 1935, who performed their revue of ‘The Girls in Uniform’ – a military-inspired cabaret show. Enclosed within gold theatrical curtains, the art-deco style buildings elegantly merge with the brutalist nature of the ship and power-station chimneys, all in front of a backdrop of an imposing military star. Brunelleschi uses a powerful and patriotic color palette of blues and reds and white.
It was during the 1920s that Brunelleschi would emerge as a respected set and costume designer. By 1928, his reputation would take his work to New York, where dancer and friend Léonide Massine (1896-1979) commissioned Brunelleschi to design the sets for four new ballets in celebration of the opening of the Roxy Theatre, New York (a large art-deco building with the capacity to show films, live performances and orchestral arrangements, operating from 1927 to 1960, and widely seen as the ‘older sister’ of the Radio City Music Hall at the Rockefeller Center).
The artist's relationship with the Roxy Theatre continued beyond the four ballets. The design in the present lot dates to around 1935 and is one of four backdrops created by the artist with the theme of ‘America’ (see Casalis, op. cit., p. 21 for another example, titled ‘Washington’). It is likely that this set design was used by the ‘Blue Bells’ in 1935, who performed their revue of ‘The Girls in Uniform’ – a military-inspired cabaret show. Enclosed within gold theatrical curtains, the art-deco style buildings elegantly merge with the brutalist nature of the ship and power-station chimneys, all in front of a backdrop of an imposing military star. Brunelleschi uses a powerful and patriotic color palette of blues and reds and white.