Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art

Resources (1)

• The Serge Lifar Collection of Ballet Set and Costume Designs

  The Serge Lifar Collection of Ballet Set and Costume Designs contains 182 oils, watercolors, and drawings—works of avant-garde artists in pre-revolutionary Russia and of Paris emigres after the First World War. These are designs executed for Diaghilev ballets and peformers, acquired by Sergei Diaghilev and Lifar, and, after 1933, by the Atheneum.

  Among the holdings are:

  Leon Bakst (1866–1924). 11 items: Costume designs for La Fee des Poupees (ca. 1909), Scheherazade (1910–18), Daphnis et Chloe, Les Femmes de Bonne Humeur (1917), Le Spectre de la Rose (1911), and The Sleeping Princess (1921); a portrait of V. Nijinsky as the faun in L'Apres-Midi d'un Faune (1912); and a portrait of Nijinsky as the rose (in Le Spectre de la Rose, 1911).

  Andre Bauchant (1873–1958). 3 items: Backdrop of Perseus and Andromeda (1926; never produced) and backdrops for Apollon Musagete (1927–28).

  Alexander Benois (1870–1960). 29 items: Costume designs and/or backdrops for Le Rossignol (ca. 1914?), Le Pavillon d'Armide (1909–11), Petrouchka (1911–25), and Giselle (1924).

  Christian Berard (1902–49). 5 items: Setting, costume designs, and sketch for La Nuit (1930?).

  Georges Braque (1882–1963). 4 items: Act curtain design for Les Facheux (1924), costume designs for Zephire et Flore (1925?), and curtain design for Les Sylphides (1926?).

  Giorgio de Chirico (b. 1888). 24 items: Composition ca. 1929; backdrops, costume designs, program cover, setting designs, and/or curtain designs for Le Bal (ca. 1929?) and for Bacchus et Ariane (ca. 1931?).

  Paul Colin (b. 1892). 2 items: Costume designs for L'Orchestre en Liberte (1931?).

  Jean Cocteau (1891–1963). 1 item: Portrait of Serge Lifar (1931), with unfinished pencil sketches of Lifar's head on the reverse.

  Andre Derain (1880–1954). 10 items: Detail for backdrop for La Boutique Fantasque: and setting and costume designs for Jack in the Box.

  Mstislav Doboujinsky (1875–1957). 1 item: Setting for Les Papillons (1914).

  Max Ernst (b. 1891). 5 items: "Still Death" (1925), oil on canvas; and curtain designs for Romeo and Juliet (1926–27).

  Naum Gabo (b. 1890). 2 items: Costume designs for La Chatte (1927).

  Nathalie Gontcharova (1881–1962). 4 items: Setting and costume designs for Les Noces (1923?) and costume designs for L'Oiseau de Feu.

  Juan Gris (1887–1927). 4 items: Program cover (Pierrot), 1924; and costume, setting (?), and curtain (?) designs for Les Tentations de la Bergere (1924?).

  Constantine Korovine (1861–1939). 6 items: Costume design for a Tartar bowman (ca. 1906) and costume designs for Polovtsians for Prince Igor (1908–1909).

  Michael Larionov (1881–1964). 6 items: Costume designs for Soleil de Nuit (ca. 1918?); setting design for Le Renard (1929); design for make-up for Kikimora in Les Contes Russes (1916?); and curtain and setting designs for Sur Le Borysthene (ca. 1931).

  Marie Laurencin (1885–1957). 3 items: Costume designs for Les Biches.

  Fernand Leger (1881–1955). 4 items: Pen and ink drawings from ca. 1911–19; and backdrop for La Creation du Monde.

  Louis Marcoussis (1883–1941). 1 item: Portrait of Serge Lifar (1933), pencil on paper.

  Henri Matisse (1869–1954). 1 item: Sketch for the curtain for Le Chant du Rossignol.

  Joan Miro (b. 1893). 2 items: Curtain design for Romeo and Juliet (1925) and project for a stage set, perhaps for Romeo and Juliet (1925).

  Amedeo Modigliani (1884–1920). 1 item: Portrait of Leon Bakst, 1917, pencil on paper.

  Eugene Mollo (b. 1904). 6 items: Grotesque figures in various media, 1928–30, not realized.

  Pablo Picasso (1881–1973). 6 items: Self portrait with two female nudes (1903); woman's head (1906); sketches of dancers (1925–26); sketch of a seated saltimbanque (ca. 1923); and sketch for the setting for Le Tricorne.

  Pedro Pruna (b. 1904). 10 items: Program cover (1925); backdrop, set, costume, and stage decoration designs for Les Matelots (1925); and curtain and backdrop designs for La Pastorale.

  Isaac Rabinovitch (b. 1894). 1 item: Costume for a drunkard, design, 1927 (possibly for S. Prokofiev's Love for Three Oranges).

  Sir Francis Rose (b. 1909). 5 items: Projects for settings (1932); portrait of Isadora Duncan (1926); and project for a ballet (1929).

  George Rouault (1871–1958). 2 items: Scene designs for Le Fils Prodigue.

  Prince Alexander Schervasnidze. 4 items: Backdrop and costume designs for Les Creatures de Promethee (1931).

  Jose-Maria Sert (1876–1947). 1 item: Costume designs for Le Astuzie Femminili (1920?).

  Dimitri Steletsky. 3 items: Setting and costume designs for Czar Theodore (ca. 1915).

  Leopold Survage (b. 1879). 6 items: Set and costume designs for Mavra (ca. 1922?).

  Pavel Tchelitchew (1898–1957). 9 items: 2 portraits of Serge Lifar (both ca. 1928); drawing of Lifar in Giselle (ca. 1928); and projects for program covers, setting, and costume designs for Ode (ca. 1928).