Russian School - Persian Costume With Feathers For Scheherazade, Green And Purple

Annotated in black pencil Dimitrov B on the left and 2 on the right, on the back in purple // fountain // raw green pen Natural oak frame, carved at the corners with floral motifs, anti-reflective glass Ballet imagined by the Russian choreographer Michel Fokine on a musical composition with oriental notes by Nicolas Rimsky-Korsakov and under the direction of Serge Diaghilev, Scheherazade was performed for the first time at the Palais Garnier on June 4, 1910. The ballet is taken from the oriental tale Shahrya and her brothers which is part of the Arabian Nights. The sets and costumes are by Léon Bakst. Nicknamed the “Delacroix of costume”, it is with this ballet that Bakst established himself through his ability to depict a mysterious and voluptuous elsewhere which established his celebrity in Paris and in the West. The public was seduced by the shimmering colors, the eroticism of the harem and its exuberant costumes. The extensive advertising campaign that accompanied this creation contributed to its popularity. Drawn, lithographed, and photographed reproductions of his costume designs, composed of turbans, aigrettes, harem pants, silks, embroidery, and peacock feathers, were distributed. These, like our gouache, constitute models for what is now categorized as the “Ballets Russes style.” Bibliography Exhibition catalog of the Paris National Opera, Bakst, from the Russian ballets to haute couture, Mathias Auclair, Manon Lavergne, Le Théâtre de la mode, p. 125, BNF Éditions, Albin Michel, 2016.