Lot 342
342
'Fastes' a papier mache and wire-framed stage prop mask
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VA… Read more
'Fastes' a papier mache and wire-framed stage prop mask

BY ANDRÉ DERAIN FOR 'LES BALLETS 1933'

Details
'Fastes' a papier mache and wire-framed stage prop mask
By André Derain for 'Les Ballets 1933'
Modelled as an donkey's head embellished with gold coloured metal foil and thread floral garland
25½in. (65.5cm.) high
Provenance
Edward James, West Dean Park, Sussex, sold Christie's House Sale, 2-6 June 1986, lot 1734.
Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

In the early 1930s Edward James (d. 1984), connoisseur, publisher and creator of the surrealist interiors at Monkton House, West Dean, Sussex patronised André Derain's 'Les Ballets' 1933, in which it was planned that his wife, the Viennese dancer Tilly Losch, would dazzle London. This head 'encircled with a sprig of tawny leaves' was executed for the company's 'The Donkey of Silenus' production at the Savoy Theatre. It featured in the bacchic festival, that according to the Theatre programme marked 'the end of the Lupercalian feast in the small Etruscan town' (Sharon-Michi Kusonoki, 'Surrealism and The Golden Age: West Dean and the James Legacy', Apollo, June 1999, pp. 3-10).

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