Prints, Drawings, and Photographs Curtain Design for the Ballet "Les Noces" 1915 Natalia Sergeyevna Goncharova, French (born Russia), 1881 - 1962 Gouache over graphite on composition board Currently not on view 1941-79-96 Gift of Christian Brinton, 1941 |
LabelGoncharova’s designs for the 1914 ballet-opera Le Coq d’Or (The Golden Cockerel) were considered a radical assault on cultured tastes. The jarring color, crude drawing, and ornamental exuberance of her décors exploded onto the stage with the ribald revelry of a peasant festival. Describing a village wedding, Les Noces was to be a follow-up to the sensational success of Le Coq d’Or, but it was finally staged only in 1923 in a completely revised form. Two firebirds of folk legend escort the wedding cortege on this curtain design. |
