Backcloth
1983 (painted)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Throughout the 20th century, great painters have been employed to design sets and costumes, with varying degrees of success. Among the most successful is David Hockney (born 1937), whose bold sense of form and colour are admirably suited to the stage. His ability to absorb a subject and then embody it visually using only the essential elements gives a great simplicity to his stage pictures, creating the essence of a character, theme or period.
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Painted cotton cloth |
| Brief description | Stage cloth designed by David Hockney for Stravinsky's opera Le Rossignol, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 1983, presented in a double bill with L'Enfant et Les Sortilèges by Maurice Ravel. Painted cotton cloth. |
| Physical description | Medium-weave cotton cloth with deliberately scrunched corners, primed with cream paint while the corners were scrunched. Painted in indigo blue paint with an outline image of a horse leaping to his right by a bridge, with a cloud above. Seamed down the middle, with a label inscribed 'BACKCLOTH LINING' (probably relating to the previous use of the cloth). Three safety pins are pinned down the right-hand side, from the back. |
| Dimensions |
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| Marks and inscriptions | Label attached inscribed: 'BACKCLOTH LINING' (This would have been an old label referring to a previous use for the cloth) |
| Credit line | Given by the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden |
| Object history | Cloth used as part of the staging for Le Rossignol (The Nightingale), Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 1983. |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Summary | Throughout the 20th century, great painters have been employed to design sets and costumes, with varying degrees of success. Among the most successful is David Hockney (born 1937), whose bold sense of form and colour are admirably suited to the stage. His ability to absorb a subject and then embody it visually using only the essential elements gives a great simplicity to his stage pictures, creating the essence of a character, theme or period. |
| Associated objects |
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| Collection | |
| Accession number | S.104-2010 |
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| Record created | October 1, 2010 |
| Record URL |
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