Natalia Sergeevna Goncharova

Irene A. Bashkiroff, Connecticut

Rhoda Koenig, ‘Top Dog’, The World of Interiors, December 1996, illustrated p.70

Please note that the measurements in the printed catalogue refer to the image size. The sheet has discoloured and there is rubbing to the paint surface in places. There is paint shrinkage to the gold paint used on the pink area of the costume. There are areas of light staining and the colours have faded. Held in a wooden frame under glass. Unexamined out of frame.
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Natalia Goncharova began work on the Ballet Russes production of Le Coq d’Or in 1913. This unusual production married the traditions of opera and ballet on stage and became an instant success. In the words of one of the leading dancers, Serge Grigoriev, Le Coq d’Or ‘recalled the glories of Diaghiliev’s first creations’. Mikhail Fokine’s choreography was in his ‘most charming and spontaneous vein, the décor by Goncharova, inspired by Russian peasant art, was a revelation of brilliant colour and primitive fantasy... Le Coq d’Or showed once again what triumph could result from a due combination of the various arts that are the ingredients of ballet’ (S.Grigoriev, The Diaghilev Ballet 1909-1929, Penguin Books, 1960, p.109).  

 

Inspired by Alexander Pushkin’s 1834 poem The Tale of the Golden Cockerel, it was set to music by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Set in a fantasy kingdom, it tells the story of the quarrelsome King Dodon, his wise Astrologer and the beautiful queen of the neighbouring state of Shamakhan. The magical Golden Cockerel is the Astrologer’s gift to the King in the first act, but he exacts a bloody revenge on his new master in the ballet’s finale.

 

Le Coq d’Or was performed twice in Moscow in 1909 with designs by Ivan Bilibin and Konstantin Korovin, but it was Goncharova who won the commission for its Paris première at the Théâtre National de l’Opera in May 1914. The fusion of opera and ballet suggested by Alexander Benois was seen as an unusual innovation, as was the integrated seating on both sides of the stage which placed the viewers in close proximity to the dancers and echoed the setting of Russian puppetry shows, popular during the Eastertide festivals. Goncharova’s innate interest in Russian folk art, her bold colours and modernist outlines are characteristic of Serge Diaghilev’s famously vibrant and visual productions.

 

Other examples of costume designs for Le Coq d’Or by Goncharova are held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh.