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Costume design
  • Costume design
    Bakst, Leon, born 1866 - died 1924
  • Enlarge image

Costume design

  • Place of origin:

    Europe (drawn)

  • Date:

    1911 (drawn)

  • Artist/Maker:

    Bakst, Leon, born 1866 - died 1924 (costume designer)

  • Materials and Techniques:

    Pencil, watercolour and gouache on paper

  • Museum number:

    S.338-1981

  • Gallery location:

    In Storage

Leon Bakst's designs for Fokine's ballet Le Dieu Bleu were amongst his most elaborate but the ballet was old fashioned in its emphasis on design at the expense of dancing and was not a success. It received three performances in Paris in 1912 and three in London the following year, but was not revived. This design for a young Rajah, a minor character not individually named in the programmes, shows fantastic detail in the feathered turban, pearl decoration and stylised shoes.

Physical description

Costume design by Leon Bakst for the Young Rajah in Mikhail Fokine's ballet Le Dieu Bleu, Diaghilev Ballets Russes, 1912. Full length figure of a young man in a vivid yellow coat decorated all over with 'teardrop' motifs and edged with a broad white band trimmed with pearls. He has a turban, the front encrusted with pearls and decorated with an aigrette, and wears oriental slippers with curled toes.

Place of Origin

Europe (drawn)

Date

1911 (drawn)

Artist/maker

Bakst, Leon, born 1866 - died 1924 (costume designer)

Materials and Techniques

Pencil, watercolour and gouache on paper

Marks and inscriptions

"DIEU BLEU" / jeunes Rajas'
Annotated in pencil, upper right hand corner

'BAKST 1911'
Artist's signature in pencil, lower right hand corner.

Dimensions

Height: 28.5 cm, Width: 21 cm, Height: 57 cm frame, Width: 42 cm frame, Depth: 3 cm frame

Descriptive line

Costume design by Leon Bakst for the Young Rajah in Mikhail Fokine's ballet Le Dieu Bleu, Diaghilev Ballets Russes, 1912.

Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)

Shead, Richard, Ballets Russes. London: Apple Press, 1989, p.64.
pp.144-145
Schouvaloff, Alexander, Theatre on Paper, The Drawing Center, New York, 1990

Materials

Pencil; Watercolour; Gouache; Paper

Techniques

Drawing (image-making)

Categories

Entertainment & Leisure; Designs

Collection

Theatre and Performance Collection

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