Design by George Kirsta for a drop curtain in Bronislava Nijinska's ballet The Beloved One (La bien aimee), produced by the Markova Dolin Ballet, 1937. Pen and ink, watercolour, gouache and gold paint.

Full stage with, to right and left, steps up to a rostrum above which decorative scrolls and cartouches, the rostrum draped from centre to right with a red curtain from which rises an ionic column with a red draped curtain from the top to the right edge; to the left, a similar column rises into the clouds; on the stage is a grand piano and a pedestal on which stands an elaborate lamp. In the 'sky are storm clouds, a crescent moon and gold stars. Pen and ink, watercolour, gouache and gold paint. Signed and dated 1937.

Cyril W. Beaumont Bequest

This set was designed by George Kirsta for Bronislava Nijinska's ballet "The Beloved One" which she mounted for the Markova-Dolin Ballet in 1937 (she had choreographed the ballet for the Ida Rubinstein company in 1928). The design came to the Museum as part of the Cyril Beaumont Bequest and was probably acquired by him as illustration for his various publications on design for the ballet - of the seventeen costume designs for this ballet in his collection two and one set design were reproduced in Beaumont's "Design for the Ballet".

S.199-2000