?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 7,000 - $ 10,000
PER KROHG JEAN BORLIN. 1920. 62 1/2x46 1/2 inches. Wall, Paris. Condition B: vertical and horizontal folds; darkened; pinholes and restoration in top margin; water stain along left edge. Paper. Framed. On October 25, 1920 the Ballet Suedois (Swedish Ballet) had their premiere performance in Paris. Paris in the 1920s was a dizzying mix of artistic genesis; fueled by the disillusionment, despair and ultimate relief at the ending of World War I, talent and creativity abounded. Ballet was one of the art forms that allowed for the confluence of several different artistic disciplines: musical composition, ballet and stage and set design. The Ballet Russe<> had been setting an avant-garde standard for ballet in Paris since 1909. But Rolf de Mare, the empressario responsible for bringing the Swedish Ballet to Paris, and Jean Borlin, the principle dancer and choreographer, viewed the Ballet Russe<> as old fashioned. Under their direction the Ballet Suedois employed composers and designers to work on their productions whose names read like a who's who of the Avant Garde art scene: Jean Cocteau, Francis Picabia, Erik Satie, Ferdinand Leger, Blaise Cendrars, Arthur Honegger, Francois Poulenc and others. De Mare and Borlin's view, that "the goal is always a point of departure" proved to be too elusive and abstract for the French audience and in 1925 de Mare, faced with an unappreciative public and hostile press, disbanded the troupe. "Nonetheless, the Swedish Ballet participated in the creation of a synthesis between dance theatre and contemporary art" (The Poster<>, by Alain Weill, G. K. Hall, Boston, 1984, p. 271). A Danish artist, Krogh can count among his most visible works an allegorical oil painting of a phoenix which hangs in the United Nations Security Council Chamber.
