Prints, Drawings, and Photographs Decor for the Ballet "Le Soleil de Nuit" 1915 Mikhail Larionov, French (born Russia), 1881 - 1964 Gouache and graphite with collage on composition board Currently not on view 1941-79-123 Gift of Christian Brinton, 1941 |
LabelSergei Diaghilev’s discovery of Natalia Goncharova was a watershed in the history of the Ballets Russes. This leader of the Russian avant-garde developed a daring aesthetic that fused the archaic with the modern through Neo-Primitivist emulation of peasant art informed by Cubo-Futurist experimentation. In his designs for the ballet Le Soleil de Nuit (Night Sun), Larionov reinvented Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera Snegourotchka (Snow Maiden) as a pagan celebration of the sun-god Yarilo at the arrival of spring. A garland of joyful sun discs in the ceiling was meant to spin rapidly, recalling Larionov’s attempts to convey the effect of scattered light rays in his paintings. |
