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Poster
Jean Cocteau, born 1889 - died 1963 - Enlarge image
Poster
- Place of origin:
Paris, France (printed)
- Date:
1911 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Jean Cocteau, born 1889 - died 1963 (maker)
Eugene Verneau & Henri Chachoin (printer) - Materials and Techniques:
Printed paper
- Credit Line:
Given by Mademoiselle Lucienne Astruc and Richard Buckle in memory of the collaboration between Diaghilev and Gabriel Astruc.
- Museum number:
S.563-1980
- Gallery location:
In Storage
This huge poster, used to advertise the sixth Paris season of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in May and June 1913, is one of a pair originally designed in 1911. It depicts the ravishing ballerina Tamara Karsavina (1885-1978) as the young girl in Fokine's one-act ballet Le Spectre de la rose who returns from a ball holding a rose given to her by a young man. When she falls asleep the spirit of the rose floods her dreams as she imagines herself dancing with him.
The ballet was first performed at the Théâtre de Monte Carlo in 1911 and brought to Paris later that year. Gabriel Astruc, Diaghilev's sponsor in Paris, wanted Leon Bakst to design the poster but Bakst declined and recommended instead the 22 year-old Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) who designed two posters. The companion poster showed Vaslav Nijinsky (1888-1950) in his rose-petal costume as the spirit of the rose. Cocteau was besotted with Nijinsky and the Ballets Russes from the first time he saw them perform in Paris in 1909 and also collaborated with the company by writing the libretto for the exotic ballet Le Dieu Bleu, 1912.
