Costume Design
1930s (Drawn)
Artist/Maker | |
Place of origin |
Full length female figure with close curled yellow brown hair, on pointe with arms curved above head, wearing close fitting low-cut blue bodice with shoulder straps and central white crosses simulating lacing. The top thigh length skirt is decorated with all-over pale grey brown squiggles. The shoes are blue with blue cross-gartering. The upper body and legs are washed in flesh tones with facial features in yellow brown. Around the figure is a pencil frame. Pencil and watercolour. The paper beyond the frame is smudged with watercolour.
Object details
Categories | |
Object type | |
Materials and techniques | Pencil and watercolour on paper |
Brief description | Costume design by John Armstrong for the Polka in Frederick Ashton's ballet Facade, 1930s. |
Physical description | Full length female figure with close curled yellow brown hair, on pointe with arms curved above head, wearing close fitting low-cut blue bodice with shoulder straps and central white crosses simulating lacing. The top thigh length skirt is decorated with all-over pale grey brown squiggles. The shoes are blue with blue cross-gartering. The upper body and legs are washed in flesh tones with facial features in yellow brown. Around the figure is a pencil frame. Pencil and watercolour. The paper beyond the frame is smudged with watercolour. |
Dimensions |
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Production type | Unique |
Marks and inscriptions | "1307" (Upper right hand corner; Handwriting; Pencil) |
Credit line | Cyril W. Beaumont Bequest |
Object history | The costume was designed by John Armstrong for the Polka in Frederick Ashton's ballet Facade. The ballet was premiered by the Camargo Society in 1931 and subsequently taken into the repertory of the Ballet Club (later Ballet Rambert) and the Vic-Wells (now Royal) Ballet with the same Armstrong designs. It is possible that this is a later redrawing either for the Vic-Wells Ballet staging or as illustration to a book on ballet design. The design came to the Theatre Museum as part of the Cyril Beaumont Bequest, and the number "1307" indicates that it was originally part of the Ballet Guild collection that became part of the London Archives of the Dance. The Archives never achieved an independent home and part of the collection was stored with Cyril Beaumont, where it became inextricably mixed with his own collection and came to the Museum as part of the Cyril Beaumont Bequest. Historical significance: A design for Ashton's first masterpiece and one of his most enduring ballets. In using the contemporary painter John Armstrong as designer, the ballet was following in the Diaghilev tradition of commissioning easel artists as stage designers. |
Subject depicted | |
Collection | |
Accession number | S.249-2000 |
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Record created | December 14, 2000 |
Record URL |
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