Costume design for Liturgie: A Jewish High Priest

Details

Natalia Goncharova (1881-1962)
Costume design for Liturgie: A Jewish High Priest
signed in Cyrillic, inscribed and dated 'June 1915/Lausanne Ouchy/N. Goncharova' (lower right)
pencil and watercolour, applied with silver foil, on paper-fronted board
18½ x 11½ in. (47.2 x 29.4 cm.)

Provenance

A gift from Lev Gvi[...] to Boris Avans 16 October 1930 (inscription on the reverse).
Professor Chernitsyn (inscription on the reverse).
Anonymous sale, Sotheby's, London, 16 June 1992, lot 83.

Literature

Exhibition catalogue, Nathalie Gontcharova, Lyon, 1969, listed p. [27], no. 99.

Exhibited

Lyon, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nathalie Gontcharova, 1969, no. 99.

Special Notice

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.

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Lot Essay

Inspired by his travels through Northern Italy in 1915-16, Sergei Diaghilev began working with Léonide Massine shortly after on an idea for a ballet based on the art and religious rites of the Renaissance and of Byzantium. Natalia Goncharova produced preliminary works for the performance, which was to comprise of a series of moving tableaux narrating the life of Christ through music and dance. While the performance did not come fruition, the involvement of prominent figures from the Russian avant-garde movement and from Russia's cultural elite testifies to the visionary nature of the project.

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