Costume Design
Costume Design
1911 (drawn)
1911 (drawn)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Petrushka (also transliterated Petrouchka) is set in the carnival atmosphere of a pre-Lenten fair in 19th century St. Petersburg. It was Stravinsky's second ballet for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and used a story of traditional street puppets, the Russian equivalent of Punch and Judy, who are brought to life by a showman. The first performance was given at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, in 1911.
Petrushka was designer Alexandre Benois' most important production. The ballet was frequently revived and between 1911 and 1957 Benois redrew the sets and costumes for 14 different productions. As his designs are similar in style they can be difficult to date, especially as Benois would annotate later designs with the names of the dancers who created the roles and would sometimes date them to 1911. The majority of his original drawings were annotated and signed in Russian, as is this one, so it seems likely that this design is for the first production of the ballet.
Petrushka was designer Alexandre Benois' most important production. The ballet was frequently revived and between 1911 and 1957 Benois redrew the sets and costumes for 14 different productions. As his designs are similar in style they can be difficult to date, especially as Benois would annotate later designs with the names of the dancers who created the roles and would sometimes date them to 1911. The majority of his original drawings were annotated and signed in Russian, as is this one, so it seems likely that this design is for the first production of the ballet.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Costume Design (generic title) |
| Materials and techniques | Pencil, watercolour, silver and gold paint on paper |
| Brief description | Costume design by Alexandre Benois for a woman and child in Mikhail Fokine's ballet Petrushka, Diaghilev Ballets Russes, 1911. |
| Physical description | Costume design by Alexandre Benois for a woman and child in Mikhail Fokine's ballet Petrushka, Diaghilev Ballets Russes, 1911. Full length figure of a woman in traditional Russian dress, with elaborately patterned green tunic, black skirt decorated in blue, and kokochnik headdress with a purple scarf patterned in gold, her left hand holding the right hand of a small child in a long brown tunic and green hat. |
| Dimensions |
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| Marks and inscriptions | 'Alexandre Benois 1911' (Artist's signature in pencil beneath figures.) |
| Credit line | Given by the Friends of the Museum of the Performing Arts |
| Literary references |
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| Summary | Petrushka (also transliterated Petrouchka) is set in the carnival atmosphere of a pre-Lenten fair in 19th century St. Petersburg. It was Stravinsky's second ballet for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and used a story of traditional street puppets, the Russian equivalent of Punch and Judy, who are brought to life by a showman. The first performance was given at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, in 1911. Petrushka was designer Alexandre Benois' most important production. The ballet was frequently revived and between 1911 and 1957 Benois redrew the sets and costumes for 14 different productions. As his designs are similar in style they can be difficult to date, especially as Benois would annotate later designs with the names of the dancers who created the roles and would sometimes date them to 1911. The majority of his original drawings were annotated and signed in Russian, as is this one, so it seems likely that this design is for the first production of the ballet. |
| Bibliographic reference | Schouvaloff, Alexander, Theatre on Paper, The Drawing Center, New York, 1990
pp.92-93 |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | S.554-1978 |
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| Record created | April 22, 2010 |
| Record URL |
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