St George and the dragon

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Prints & Drawings Study Room, level C

Artist/Maker	Polunin, Vladimir Yakovlevich (designer)
Place of origin	London (made)

Design for a drop-curtain sketched in water colour, body-colours and gold paint.

Object details

Categories	Designs Drawings Paintings Theatre
Object type	Theatre design
Title	St George and the dragon (generic title)
Materials and techniques	watercolour, body-colours and gold paint Watercolour Bodycolour Gold Paint Watercolour Drawing
Brief description	Vladimir Polunin Design for drop-curtain depicting St George and the dragon. Early 1920s.
Physical description	Design for a drop-curtain sketched in water colour, body-colours and gold paint.
Dimensions	Height: 26cm Length: 40cm Taken from Salmina-Haskell, L., Catalogue of Russian Drawings, London: V & A, 1972, pp. 44-45, cat. 172.
Production type	Unique
Marks and inscriptions	W. Polunin (Signed.)
Credit line	Bought from the International Theatre Exhibition Fund.
Object history	This is a sketch for the drop-curtain for the Russian Ballet season at the London Coliseum in 1925. A very close version of the same design was reproduced as the frontispiece to Polunin's The Continental Method of scene Painting (London, 1927), where the work is described: 'In order to separate the performance of the Diaghileff Company from the varied programme of a music-hall, I was commissioned to design a drop-curtain which should at once effect this purpose and be symbolical of the spirit of the Russian ballet...'
Subjects depicted	Dragon St. George
Bibliographic references	Salmina-Haskell, L., Catalogue of Russian Drawings, London: V & A, 1972, pp. 44-45, cat. 172. Jane Pritchard, ed. Diaghilev and the golden age of the Ballet Russes, 1909-1929 London: V&A Publishing, 2010. ISBN: 9781851776139. Victoria and Albert Museum, Department of Engraving, Illustration and Design and Department of Paintings, Accessions 1926, London: Board of Education, 1927.
Collection	Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number	E.480-1926

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Record created	February 24, 2009
Record URL	https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O192412/st-george-and-the-dragon-theatre-design-polunin-vladimir-yakovlevich/

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