Natalia Sergeevna Goncharova

Lefebvre-Foinet Collection

Les Noces is a ballet in four scenes on the theme of a traditional Russian peasant wedding, with music by Igor Stravinsky and choreography by Bronislava Nijinska. Goncharova worked on the set and costume designs for eight years from 1915 until the summer of 1923 when the ballet finally premiered at Théâtre Gaîte-Lyrîqué in Paris. The initial stage designs were of a decorative nature, in the spirit of her works for the 1914 production of Coq d'or. Diaghilev described the ballet in the following terms: 'If you wish to know an essentially Russian work, to my mind nothing reveals Russia as completely as does Les Noces. There is no folkore, in the full sense of the word, in Noces, yet this work contains the essence of the Russian soul, more so even than the popular melodies themselves.'