Preliminary sketch by Valentine Gross for a woodcut showing the Groom in the ballet Petrushka, Diaghilev Ballets Russes, ca. 1911.

Diaghilev Ballets Russes Petrushka (also transliterated Petrouchka) was first premiered in Paris at Théâtre du Châtelet on 13 June 1911, according to Diaghilev and The Golden Age of The Ballets Russes 1909 - 1929, edited by Jane Pritchard, first published by V&A Publishing in 2010. This production is set in the carnival atmosphere of a pre-Lenten fair in 19th century St. Petersburg. Valentine Gross woodcut-style drawings of nursemaids dancing with coachmen or grooms at the fair were worked up for use in souvenir programmes and publications.

The sketches are part of the Valentine Gross Archive (THM/165), held by the V&A Department of Theatre and Performance. Valentine Gross Archive contains research material and artwork, including sketches, studies, drawings, pastels and illustrations. Only the artwork materials have been catalogued with museum numbers and given item level descriptions found in the Search the Collections webpage.

Valentine Gross, a.k.a. Valentine Hugo, was a French art student in Paris in the 1910s. She became a ballet enthusiast, illustrator, researcher and painter. Valentine Gross witnessed annual seasons of Diaghilev Ballets Russes in Paris and made preminary sketches during performances and rehearsals between 1909 and 1914. She later worked them up into pencil or coloured drawings of various degrees of finish including illustrations and paintings.

Some of the sketches feature in the book Nijinsky on Stage by Richard Buckle, published in London by Studio Vista in 1971.