NATALIA GONCHAROVA (1881 - 1962) Costume design for 'Liturgie': St. Luke.
Color pochoir with gouache on J. Perrigot Arches MBM paper, circa 1914. 615x435 mm; 24¼x17⅛ inches, full margins. Signed in pencil and gouache, lower right and inscribed "Liturgie" in pencil, lower left.
Provenance Slav Institute Archive of Slavic Art, Prague, with the deaccession stamp verso. Private collection, New Jersey.
Liturgie was an unrealized ballet-opera project by the Ballets Russes, conceived in 1915. It was intended to be a total work of art, combining ballet, opera, and religious themes, but it was never fully realized due to high production costs and other challenges. The project involved Natalia Goncharova, choreographers Sergei Diaghilev and Léonid Massine and composer Igor Stravinsky.
