May 10, 2004 - Sale 2006

Sale 2006 - Lot 35

Price Realized: $ 2,990
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
AFTER PABLO PICASSO (1881-1973) BALLET RUSSES / MONTE CARLO. 1924.
64x481/2 inches. Albert Picard, Saint Martin.
Condition B+: creases along vertical and horizontal folds; image banner and text banner
Serge Diaghilev found the Ballets Russes in 1909 and premiered with a revolutionary show and first season at the Theatre Chatelet that transfixed Paris and transformed the artistic landscape. For years they performed at the Theatre des Champs Elysees, on the cutting edge of all the artistic disciplines featuring (among many other talents) music by Stravinsky, sets and costumes designed by the best Cubist artists and some the great ballet dancers of all time. In 1917, at the suggestion of Jean Cocteau, Diaghilev commissioned Picasso to design the sets and costumes for Parade. The image on this poster is a lithograph after a costume drawing of Picasso's which the Ballet Russes used for years on their posters. Both in Paris and Monte Carlo (where they also performed) they had typographic posters printed listing the program of their season, around a blank space on which they would glue this image. This image "The Costume of the Chinaman for Parade" was also used on a poster in 1939 to advertise an exhibition on the Ballet Russes at Paris' Musee des Arts Decoratifs. Picasso 54 (var).