Live Auction 11997Russian Art
Alexandre Benois (1870-1960)
Lot 67 PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT MID-ATLANTIC AMERICAN COLLECTION

Alexandre Benois (1870-1960)

Five costume designs for 'Le lac des cygnes'

Closed28 November 2016

Price Realised

GBP 8,125

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Alexandre Benois (1870-1960)
Five costume designs for 'Le lac des cygnes'
each signed, three dated '1945', one dated '46', all inscribed with costume notes and production details overall
pencil, watercolour and ink, four heightened with gold and two heightened with silver, on paper
11 7/8 x 8 1/8 in. (28.3 x 20.5 cm.)
(5)

Sol (1888-1974) and Emma Hurok (1891-1974).
By descent to the present owner.

Specialist note

The impresario Sol Hurok managed the careers of icons including Anna Pavlova (1881-1931), Mstislav Rostropovich (1927-2001), Feodor Chaliapin (1873-1938), Michel Fokine (1880-1942) and Isadora Duncan (1877-1927). One of his greatest achievements was to bring the Bolshoi Ballet to the United States in 1959 for an eight-week tour. It seems likely that Benois’s designs for Le lac des cygnes were commissioned by Hurok for an unrealized production that was planned for Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo with choreography by George Balanchine (1904-1983).