Ballets Russes de Diaghilew

Dimensions with Frame: 43″ x 73″

Artist: Jean Cocteau

Medium: Original Stone Lithograph Vintage Poster

c. 1939

Advertising poster for the 1939 exhibition BALLETS RUSSES DE DIAGHILEW 1909 A 1929 Musee des Art Decoratifs. Our 1939 poster was restruck from theoriginal lithograph of 1911 to advertisethis, the first major exhibition concerning Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes. In1911, Bakst persuaded Diaghilev tocommission Cocteau to design two posters, one featuring Nijinsky and theother Karsavina in their costumes for Le Spectre de la Rose, which had its firstperformance that year during the seasonin Monte Carlo. The Karsavina postershows her in her costume as the young girl in the ballet, standing on point, herhands crossed in front of her, her eyesclosed facing to the left side of theimage. A fascinating note comes from the late Alexander Schouvaloff, who suggests that in this poster: Cocteau mischievously made Karsavina un cannily resemble himself.