Alexander Nikolaevich Benois

Madame Gilberte Cournand, Paris

Stockholm Dansmuseet - Museum Rolf de Maré, Alexandre Benois & the World of Art, 13 September 2002 – 12 January 2003

The design is composed of several cut-out sheets of paper layered over each other. The paper is undulated. There are creases and several tears to the side panels with some associated paint loss. There are stains and media staining to the sheets with some wear along the cut edges. The pigments have faded a little and the pencil lines are smudged. Held in a modern gold painted wooden frame. Unexamined out of frame.
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A similar version of the present lot is in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection (see A. Schouvaloff, Set and costume designs for ballet and theater, 1987, p.145)

On his departure from Russia in 1926, Benois settled in Paris where his old friend Sergei Diaghilev and his Ballets Russes company reigned supreme. However in 1928 the famous artist Ida Rubinstein set up her own dance and theatre company and Benois became her principal designer and artistic advisor. He created sets and costumes, but also proposed libretti and music and  helped to transpose the essence of the World of Art movement to the stage. Benois created no less than twelve large scale productions for Rubinstein, including La Princesse Cygne which premiered at the Paris Opéra on 29 November 1928 with choreography by Bronislava Nijinska, and music taken from Rimsky-Korsakovs´s opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan. This sumptuous design is for the scene II, the wedding. Benois has created a magnificent golden set with architecture inspired by Russian icon painting.