Research Catalog

Details

Additional authors

1. Beard, Richard

Found in

1. Richard Park Beard collection.

Description

1. 1 drawing : ink, watercolor over graphite, color; 25 x 17 cm., on mount 34 x 26 cm.

Summary

1. Costume design depicting a full-length female figure in a black tutu and feathered headpiece. As the use of the plural in the designer's notation indicates, this costume was probably intended to be worn by dancers of the ensemble rather than by Odile, the heroine's alter-ego, who usually appears as a black swan.

Alternative title

1. Richard Park Beard collection. Graphics.

Subject

1. Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo.
2. Balanchine, George. Swan lake.

Genre/Form

1. Costume design drawings.

Call number

1. *MGZGA Ben A Swa 2

Language

1. French

Note

1. Signed.
2. Labeled: Les cygnes noirs.
3. Includes the designer's notations.

Source (note)

1. Robert James Wood II

Biography (note)

1. Le lac des cygnes, or Swan lake, has been produced in many versions by different choreographers, though most are danced to the score by Peter Tchaikovsky. This design was probably made for an unrealized production by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, intended to be staged with choreography by George Balanchine in 1945.
2. The Russian painter and stage designer Alexandre Benois played a pivotal role in ballet history. He is said to have sparked Serge Diaghilev's interest in ballet, and contributed to the formation and direction of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, which revitalized ballet in the early part of the century. He continued to design for the stage for many years after the Ballets Russes was disbanded in 1929.
3. Richard Park Beard, 1925-2009, the former owner of this drawing, made his debut as a professional dancer with Ballet International in 1944, and subsequently danced with Ballet Theatre, Ballet Society, and the New York City Ballet. He also danced and choreographed for television and nightclub shows.

Linking entry (note)

1. Forms part of the Richard Park Beard collection. Graphics.

Local note

1. Cataloging funds provided by Friends of Jerome Robbins Dance Division.
2. For another design by Benois for Swan lake, see: *MGZGA Ben A Swa 1.

Author

1. Benois, Alexandre, 1870-1960.

Source

1. Gift; Robert James Wood II, 2010.

Added author

1. Beard, Richard. Collector
2. Wood, Robert James. Donor