Set and Costume Design for Ballet and Theatre by Shouvaloff, Alexander - 2003

UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. 1st Edition . Hardcover. As New/As New. 9.75" X 11.75. h/b 268 pages, condition is As New, a gift inscription to the flyleaf. Copy Number 4498 of 5000. English language versions numbered 3501 to 5000. Over the past fifteen years Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza has acquired a collection of more than fifty drawings largely of set and costume designs reflecting the theatre of the first hall of the twentieth century, and particularly the ballet, during what was surely its most exciting and innovative period. Twenty-two of these drawings are by Leon Bakst, perhaps the most famous of all theatrical designers, whose revolutionary designs for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes played such a major part in that company's impact during the years 1909-29. In the preface to this catalogue of the collection Maitre Serge Lifar, principal dancer and choreographer with the Ballets Russes recalls his first meeting with Bakst and goes on to review the artist's outstanding contribution to twentieth-century art. In addition to works by Bakst, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection includes drawings by George Barbier, Alexandre Benois, Erte, Alexandra Exter, Nathalie Gontcharova, Michel Larionov, Jose de Zamora and others. Alexander Schouvaloff has compiled an extensive descriptive catalogue of these fifty-six drawings. In his introduction he describes the particular nature of theatre design and how it differs from other design, gives a short survey of the state of theatre art in Europe and Russia at the end of the nineteenth century to put the drawings into context, and discusses briefly each of the artists. In the catalogue proper, the author gives the details about the first performance of each ballet or play, a synopsis and then analyses in detail the specific costume or set design in relation to the entire production for which it was made. Each drawing is reproduced in colour and is accompanied by comparative illustrations in black and white of other designs and photographs of the production. The catalogue continues with extensive lists of' exhibitions of theatrical and decorative art by artists in the collection, and concludes with a chronology of each of the artists, a selected bibliography and a general index. This is a very heavy volume and extra postage outwith the UK wil be required.