Action stage photograph of Le Train Bleu, performed by Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, June 1924. The photograph shows Anton Dolin as Le Beau Gosse in the centre with the gigolos in their royal blue bathing costumes on the left and the 'poules' young women in their long-sleeved brouwn costumes behind. The ballet was choreographed by Bronislava Nijinska to music by Darius Milhaud, with a set designed by Henri Laurens and costumes by Coco Chanel.
No actual place is referred in Le Train bleu but the ballet takes its title from the nickname for de luxe first class only train which began service in 1922 to take visitors from Calais and Paris to the South of France. It acquired its name in 1923, just one year before the creation of the ballet as the sleeping quarters were decorated blue and gold. The plot is very simple concerning flirtations on the beach and the sports popular at seaside resorts – bathing, golfing and playing tennis. The actual set, once Picasso's front cloth had risen, was by the sculptor Henri Laurens and included his trademark fish as wing pieces. It showed two neo-cubist beach cabins on the sand as well as a neutral backcloth, wings and ramp. The sea line is marked out on the floor cloth. The whole evokes a popular beach in the south of France rather than showing it realistically.