Les Ballets Russes de Serge de Diaghilew

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MICHEL, Georges-Michel, GEORGE, Waldemar. Les Ballets Russes de Serge de Diaghilew. Le Costume théâtral par Nathalie Gontcharova // Quelques Artistes contemporains, no. 2. — Paris, Pierre Vorms, Galerie Billiet, 1930.
Octavo (271 х 184 mm). 32 pp. Title with Picasso’s vignette from Serge Lifar’s collection; with mainly color illustrations.

Upper wrapper. Courtesy of BnF

A bit more than a year after Sergey Diaghilev’s death in August 1929, on October, 14-28, 1930, a retrospective exhibition of models, sets and costumes for the entreprise “Diaghilev’s Russian Ballets” was held in the Billet gallery, where Goncharova and Larionov presented sketches of all the performances they had designed for Diaghilev. This edition was published shortly after the exhibition and includes introductory articles about Diaghilev’s life and career by Waldemar George and Michel Georges-Michel (with whom Goncharova had already collaborated for the previous edition in this bibliography and whose introduction in this book is adorned with Goncharova’s tailpiece from her 1910s futurist drafts). Besides illustrations, Goncharova contributed an article titled “Quelques Mots sur le Costume Théâtral” in which she discusses her main principles of conception and creation of stage sets, decor and costumes.

Her designs included in the issue alternate with those of Picasso, Georges Bracques, Giorgio de Chirico, Anri Matisse and others. Her costume design of “Princesse de la Mer” for Sadko (1916) stands out with its glowing bright and warm colors, reminding one of her designs for the Conte de Tsar Saltan in its flourishing patterns collage style of bright layers of the princes’ garment.

In 1955, the second, augmented edition of the present work came out: Les Ballets russes / Serge de Diaghilev et la décoration théâtrale, par Nathalie Gontcharova, Michel Larionov, Pierre Vorms … Nouvelle édition revue et augmentée / [illustrations de Michel Larionov et de Nathalie Gontcharova]. – Belvès: P. Vorms, 1955. 117, (3) pp., with numbered coloured full-page plates. In publisher’s illustrated coloured wrappers with a costume design by Larionov.

The “second” edition featuring Larionov’s costume design on the cover and Goncharova’s stage set design. Courtesy of BnF

The authors state in the introduction that this new edition intends to correct the mistakes of the earlier one and calls itself a second edition. In many ways, it can be considered as a separate edition because of the difference in its illustrations and articles: by Pierre Vorms titled “Serge de Diaghilew ou la Mise en scène des Arts” and a joint article by Goncharova and Larionov “Serge de Diaghilew et l’évolution du decor et du costume de Ballet”. This edition includes Goncharova’s rare designs from private collections, including her draft for the decor of Noces (1923) from the collection of Andre Meyer, Paris; an image (though black and white) of a Spanish woman (1916), from a private collection in London.