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 gauze cloth. |
| Physical description | Black gauze cloth, painted in the centre with an image of a blue nightingale. The cloth is stored tied and rolled in a cream sailcloth cotton bag daubed with black paint, the bag inscribed in red and green paint: ‘D8 ROSS GAUZE’. The black gauze cloth, probably stiffened cotton, is attached to a cream linen sleeve sewn with cotton webbing ties at 28.5cm intervals. Cloth rolled and tied with the webbing ties, the sleeve inscribed in paint: ‘D8 ROSSIGNOL’ |
| Dimensions |
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| Marks and inscriptions | Bag inscribed: 'D8 ROSS GAUZE'. The linen sleeve is inscribed in paint: 'D8 ROSSIGNOL' |
| 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. |
| Subject 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.105-2010 |
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| Record created | October 8, 2010 |
| Record URL |
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