Costume design for Jane Marnac

Details

LÉON BAKST (1866-1924)
Costume design for Jane Marnac
signed 'Bakst' (lower right)
pencil, watercolor and gouache, heightened with silver, on paper
19 1/2 x 13 in. (49.5 x 33 cm.)
Executed in 1910s

Provenance

with Galleria del Levante, Milan.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby’s, London, 23 October 1980, lot 169a.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby’s, London,19 December 1996, lot 160.
Acquired at the above sale by Ann and Gordon Getty.

Literature

Exhibition catalogue, Léon Bakst, Milan, 1967, illustrated p. [21], listed p. [17], no. 40 as 'Shéhérazade -1916. Costume pour Jane Marnac'.
C. Spencer, Léon Bakst, London, 1973, illustrated p. 74, listed p. 228, no. 51 as 'Shéhérazade, 1910 Costume for Jane Marnac'.
C. Spencer, Léon Bakst and the Ballets Russes, London, 1995, illustrated p. 83, listed p. 221, no. 125 as 'Variation of the costume for Zobeide 1916'.

Exhibited

Milan, Rome and Munich, Galleria del Levante, Léon Bakst, 2 May-November 1967, no. 40.

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

This design by Bakst has been reproduced in literature as the Belgian actress Jane Marnac (1892-1976) in the costume of 'Zobeide', the favourite wife of the Shah in the ballet Scheherazade. In the 1910 production by the Ballets Russes, Ida Rubinstein (1880-1960) performed the role of 'Zobeide'. Although Marnac never danced with the Ballets Russes, she did attend the opening night of the 1909 Paris season and it has been suggested that Bakst made this design specifically for her.

More from The Ann & Gordon Getty Collection: Volume 4 | Chinese Works of Art, English and European Furniture and Decorative Arts, Day Sale

View All