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Lot Essay
We are grateful to Mr. Erik La Prade for his assistance in cataloguing this work.
Pavel Tchelitchew began creating stage-and-ballet designs in 1919, in Kiev. Subsequently, he moved to Berlin. Between 1921-1923, he created stage designs for ballets, theatre and cabaret-music halls. In 1923, he moved to Paris, painting landscapes and portraits, exhibiting in Salon d’Automne in 1925. It is generally conceded that in 1928, Tchelitchew’s stage and dance designs came to maturity in the costumes and scenery he created for the ballet, Ode, produced by Diaghilev with music by Nicolas Nabokov. Between 1928 and 1942, Tchelitchew worked closely with George Balanchine, Igor Stravinsky, and others in the theatre-and-dance world.
In 1942, Tchelitchew was invited by the editors of ARTnews to create a work illustrating how the artist would present The Queen of The Night, scene from Mozart’s opera, The Magic Flute. This particular drawing was published with the caption, “Drawn especially for ART News by Pavel Tchelitchew.”
The editors considered Tchelitchew the “the most fantastic of the moderns, he seemed to us perhaps the only available man equipped both in stage knowledge and imagination to deal with the most fragile and fanciful of Mozarts . . .” After a brief introduction, the editors quote Tchelitchew’s “description of the costume”:
“The Queen of The Night in Mozart’s Magic Flute is Queen Maria Theresa of Austria who is portrayed in the opera as a malevolent, raging spirit who tries to prevent Tamino the prince from ascending the Throne. In the scene of her great aria she appears in an ‘Egyptian mirage’. The scene represents the big ballroom of the palace of Schonbrunn . . . The Queen of The Night steps forth atop a projection with her court of nine planets. She is dressed in dark indigo—blue taffeta embroidered with jet and sequins. Her wings of a night-moth are embroidered with the signs of the constellations in small sequins or diamonds, the stars in large shining stones. Her dress is embroidered in the same way with signs of the Zodiac.
The Planets who hold her baldaquin-like wings are dressed in much darker taffeta decorated with jet. On their pale silver-blue chiffon turbans they carry black statues’ heads. The Planets—Mercury, Mars, Venus, and the rest—are covered with precious stones. The underskirt of the Queen’s costume represents an evening sky just after sunset and is pale blue-grey-mauve satin covered with chiffon on which cloud effects are painted. She walks atop a continuous projection of a cascade behind a glass balustrade . . . “
1942 was the last year Tchelitchew created décor for the stage and dance theatre. If you look closely, you can find small figures (people) trapped in her wings. These metamorphic “interior images” were a dominate theme in Tchelitchew’s drawings and paintings at this time, especially in his major painting, HIDE AND SEEK, exhibited in 1942, in his retrospective at The Museum of Modern Art.
This drawing is a fine example of Tchelitchew’s stage art.
What The Metropolitan Opera Might Do: An Ideal for the “Magic Flute.” Tchelitchew: Project for the Magic Flute. ART News. Vol. XLI. No. 3. March 15-31. 1942. Pg 8.
Pavel Tchelitchew began creating stage-and-ballet designs in 1919, in Kiev. Subsequently, he moved to Berlin. Between 1921-1923, he created stage designs for ballets, theatre and cabaret-music halls. In 1923, he moved to Paris, painting landscapes and portraits, exhibiting in Salon d’Automne in 1925. It is generally conceded that in 1928, Tchelitchew’s stage and dance designs came to maturity in the costumes and scenery he created for the ballet, Ode, produced by Diaghilev with music by Nicolas Nabokov. Between 1928 and 1942, Tchelitchew worked closely with George Balanchine, Igor Stravinsky, and others in the theatre-and-dance world.
In 1942, Tchelitchew was invited by the editors of ARTnews to create a work illustrating how the artist would present The Queen of The Night, scene from Mozart’s opera, The Magic Flute. This particular drawing was published with the caption, “Drawn especially for ART News by Pavel Tchelitchew.”
The editors considered Tchelitchew the “the most fantastic of the moderns, he seemed to us perhaps the only available man equipped both in stage knowledge and imagination to deal with the most fragile and fanciful of Mozarts . . .” After a brief introduction, the editors quote Tchelitchew’s “description of the costume”:
“The Queen of The Night in Mozart’s Magic Flute is Queen Maria Theresa of Austria who is portrayed in the opera as a malevolent, raging spirit who tries to prevent Tamino the prince from ascending the Throne. In the scene of her great aria she appears in an ‘Egyptian mirage’. The scene represents the big ballroom of the palace of Schonbrunn . . . The Queen of The Night steps forth atop a projection with her court of nine planets. She is dressed in dark indigo—blue taffeta embroidered with jet and sequins. Her wings of a night-moth are embroidered with the signs of the constellations in small sequins or diamonds, the stars in large shining stones. Her dress is embroidered in the same way with signs of the Zodiac.
The Planets who hold her baldaquin-like wings are dressed in much darker taffeta decorated with jet. On their pale silver-blue chiffon turbans they carry black statues’ heads. The Planets—Mercury, Mars, Venus, and the rest—are covered with precious stones. The underskirt of the Queen’s costume represents an evening sky just after sunset and is pale blue-grey-mauve satin covered with chiffon on which cloud effects are painted. She walks atop a continuous projection of a cascade behind a glass balustrade . . . “
1942 was the last year Tchelitchew created décor for the stage and dance theatre. If you look closely, you can find small figures (people) trapped in her wings. These metamorphic “interior images” were a dominate theme in Tchelitchew’s drawings and paintings at this time, especially in his major painting, HIDE AND SEEK, exhibited in 1942, in his retrospective at The Museum of Modern Art.
This drawing is a fine example of Tchelitchew’s stage art.
What The Metropolitan Opera Might Do: An Ideal for the “Magic Flute.” Tchelitchew: Project for the Magic Flute. ART News. Vol. XLI. No. 3. March 15-31. 1942. Pg 8.