BY THE IMPERIAL PORCELAIN FACTORY, ST. PETERSBURG, PERIOD OF ALEXANDER III, AND THE STATE PORCELAIN FACTORY, LENINGRAD, 1925

The present lot depicts famed ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky in the role of Iskender from the ballet La Péri by French composer Paul Dukas. This one act ballet tells the story of Iskender, the Persian name for Alexander the Great, and his search for immortality, during which he encounters a mythological Peri, a female winged spirit. Dukas was commissioned by the Ballets Russes to write the score, which was completed in 1911. The premiere was to occur that year, with costume and set designs by Léon Bakst, but was canceled when Ballet Russes founder Sergei Diaghilev decided that Natalia Trouhanova, who was to perform the role of the Peri, was not skilled enough to dance opposite Nijinsky. The ballet eventually premiered at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris in 1912 starring Trouhanova opposite Alfred Bekefi as Iskender, with choreography by Ivan Clustine and costume and set designs by René Piot.
A later version of the drawing by Bakst, dated 1922 and gifted by Sir Joseph Duveen, is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Acc. No. 22.226.1).