La Tragédie de Salomé
Photograph
1913 (photographed)
1913 (photographed)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Stage photograph of Tamara Karsavina in La Tragédie de Salomé, performed by Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, 1913. The ballet was choreographed by Boris Romanov to music by Florent Schmitt, with set and costumes designed by Serge Soudeikine.
La Tragédie de Salomé was created as a vehicle for Tamara Karsavina to keep her happy at a time when Vaslav Nijinsky was getting the lion's share of public attention. Since Firebird Karsavina complained that no vehicle had been created for her. In her autobiography, Theatre Street p.343, she claims ‘Diaghilev made reparation. He commissioned Salomé, a ballet entirely for me. After that I had no cause to complain: marvellous parts simply poured into my lap.
Karsavina’s striking costume and make-up as Salomé was described in the Daily Telegraph as ‘weird.’ Her make-up was pale ‘startling in its pallor by contrast with her mop of raven hair’, blue shadowed eyes and vermilion lips. She wore false eyelashes which she had the wig master make up for her. Indeed, in conversation with Nesta MacDonald she claimed to have invented false eyelashes. At her entrance she wore a robe with an immense train decorated with black and gold which covered the stairs as she descended slowly. On her head was high wig and headdress decorated with pearls and flowers. Once she had descended the stairs, she shed the robe into the arms of the attendants and is seen in the elaborate all-in-one closely-fitted garment in brown, gold, orange and white. The costume was executed by Mme Ivaschenko of Caffi, St Petersburg and the receipt for this is in the V&A's Ekstrom Collection.
La Tragédie de Salomé takes place after the execution of the Baptist, whose head is placed by executioners upon a column. Salome dances, and with her train of slaves intoxicated with the feasting and the horror of the night. Salome’s dance is at first frantic and insane; then more proud and sorrowful, more remote and ecstatic. It is the expression and avowal of her sensual torment and of her atonement through the very misery of her unassuageable desire.
‘In sheer theatrical effect this ballet of Salome is quite dazzling. Its bizarre decoration, and the eccentricity of action, capture the eye, as the music captures the ear, by sheer audacity of assault. It is only when the conclusion is reached that the whole appears to have been a profitless, if dazzling diversion.’ Johnson p.216
La Tragédie de Salomé was created as a vehicle for Tamara Karsavina to keep her happy at a time when Vaslav Nijinsky was getting the lion's share of public attention. Since Firebird Karsavina complained that no vehicle had been created for her. In her autobiography, Theatre Street p.343, she claims ‘Diaghilev made reparation. He commissioned Salomé, a ballet entirely for me. After that I had no cause to complain: marvellous parts simply poured into my lap.
Karsavina’s striking costume and make-up as Salomé was described in the Daily Telegraph as ‘weird.’ Her make-up was pale ‘startling in its pallor by contrast with her mop of raven hair’, blue shadowed eyes and vermilion lips. She wore false eyelashes which she had the wig master make up for her. Indeed, in conversation with Nesta MacDonald she claimed to have invented false eyelashes. At her entrance she wore a robe with an immense train decorated with black and gold which covered the stairs as she descended slowly. On her head was high wig and headdress decorated with pearls and flowers. Once she had descended the stairs, she shed the robe into the arms of the attendants and is seen in the elaborate all-in-one closely-fitted garment in brown, gold, orange and white. The costume was executed by Mme Ivaschenko of Caffi, St Petersburg and the receipt for this is in the V&A's Ekstrom Collection.
La Tragédie de Salomé takes place after the execution of the Baptist, whose head is placed by executioners upon a column. Salome dances, and with her train of slaves intoxicated with the feasting and the horror of the night. Salome’s dance is at first frantic and insane; then more proud and sorrowful, more remote and ecstatic. It is the expression and avowal of her sensual torment and of her atonement through the very misery of her unassuageable desire.
‘In sheer theatrical effect this ballet of Salome is quite dazzling. Its bizarre decoration, and the eccentricity of action, capture the eye, as the music captures the ear, by sheer audacity of assault. It is only when the conclusion is reached that the whole appears to have been a profitless, if dazzling diversion.’ Johnson p.216
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | La Tragédie de Salomé (generic title) |
| Materials and techniques | Photograph |
| Brief description | Photograph by Gerschel of La Tragédie de Salomé, performed by Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, 1913 |
| Physical description | Photograph of Tamara Karsavina in a Ballets Russes production of La Tragédie de Salomé. She is seen in the enormous Beardsley-style cloak which has been arranged over a screen as Johnson noted p. 218 Salome 'is shrouded in the voluminous folds of an immense cloak…and slowly comes down the staircase. It is seen that the robe with which she is covered has an immense train - black with glittering embroidery of gold’. The photograph also reveals Karsavina’s make up which was pale ‘startling in its pallor by contrast with her mop of raven hair’, blue shadowed eyes and vermilion lips. She wore false eyelashes and a high wig and headdress decorated with pearls and flowers. On the right of the photograph it is possible to see a glimpse of the wallpaper of the greenroom backstage at the theatre des Champs Elysses revealing where the photograph was taken. |
| Dimensions |
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| Credit line | Gabrielle Enthoven Collection |
| Object history | This photograph was published in a feature spread about La Tragédie de Salomé in the Paris theatre magazine Comoedia Illustré, 5 July 1913, pp.906-7. |
| Summary | Stage photograph of Tamara Karsavina in La Tragédie de Salomé, performed by Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, 1913. The ballet was choreographed by Boris Romanov to music by Florent Schmitt, with set and costumes designed by Serge Soudeikine. La Tragédie de Salomé was created as a vehicle for Tamara Karsavina to keep her happy at a time when Vaslav Nijinsky was getting the lion's share of public attention. Since Firebird Karsavina complained that no vehicle had been created for her. In her autobiography, Theatre Street p.343, she claims ‘Diaghilev made reparation. He commissioned Salomé, a ballet entirely for me. After that I had no cause to complain: marvellous parts simply poured into my lap. Karsavina’s striking costume and make-up as Salomé was described in the Daily Telegraph as ‘weird.’ Her make-up was pale ‘startling in its pallor by contrast with her mop of raven hair’, blue shadowed eyes and vermilion lips. She wore false eyelashes which she had the wig master make up for her. Indeed, in conversation with Nesta MacDonald she claimed to have invented false eyelashes. At her entrance she wore a robe with an immense train decorated with black and gold which covered the stairs as she descended slowly. On her head was high wig and headdress decorated with pearls and flowers. Once she had descended the stairs, she shed the robe into the arms of the attendants and is seen in the elaborate all-in-one closely-fitted garment in brown, gold, orange and white. The costume was executed by Mme Ivaschenko of Caffi, St Petersburg and the receipt for this is in the V&A's Ekstrom Collection. La Tragédie de Salomé takes place after the execution of the Baptist, whose head is placed by executioners upon a column. Salome dances, and with her train of slaves intoxicated with the feasting and the horror of the night. Salome’s dance is at first frantic and insane; then more proud and sorrowful, more remote and ecstatic. It is the expression and avowal of her sensual torment and of her atonement through the very misery of her unassuageable desire. ‘In sheer theatrical effect this ballet of Salome is quite dazzling. Its bizarre decoration, and the eccentricity of action, capture the eye, as the music captures the ear, by sheer audacity of assault. It is only when the conclusion is reached that the whole appears to have been a profitless, if dazzling diversion.’ Johnson p.216 |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | S.330-2017 |
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| Record created | August 3, 2017 |
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