Natalia Sergeevna Goncharova

Lefebvre-Foinet Collection

MLF082: Exhibition catalogue, Natalia Goncharova. Between East and West, Moscow: State Tretyakov Gallery, 2013, p.72 illustrated

MLF088 There are a few minor scattered areas of red pigment. There is a light covering of surface dirt. Held in a simple white frame behind plexiglass. Unexamined out of frame. MLF082 There is a light covering of surface dirt, with flecks of dirt in places, and some smudging. Held in a simple white frame behind plexiglass. Unexamined out of frame.
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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.'

The present lot belongs to the second set of designs for Les Noces, in which Goncharova incorporated the traditional iconography of the Tikhvin icon into the curtain design. Unlike the original designs which repeated the successful formula of Le Coq d’or, these so-called 'Arkhangelsk' designs were executed in pale pinks, blues and silvers and depicted the specific milieu of the merchant classes in Northern Russia. Unfortunately the second set, like the first, were never realised and at the request of Bronislava Nijinska, Goncharova completely reworked her ideas and the scenography that was eventually used in the 1923 production was laconic in design and austere in colour.