Sunday, August 22, 2021

Album dédié à Tamar Karsavina par George Barbier et Jean-Louis Vaudoyer, Collections Pierre Corrard, Paris, 1914


L'Oiseau de feu.

Karsavina was something of a legend even during her own lifetime, celebrated for her technique, her intelligence, charm, and wit. In 1914, on the brink of WWI, this album was dedicated to her, in celebration of her career, and highlighting her most important roles. All of those featured in the album were from ballets created and performed under the aegis of Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes: Le Pavillon d'Armide, Les Sylphides, Cléopâtre, Carnaval, Shéhérazade, L'Oiseau de feu, Le Spectre de la rose, Narcisse, Petrushka, Daphnis et Chloé, Thamar, Jeux, La Tragédie de Salomé. 

(It should be noted that the apparent nudity in these images only went as far as the artist's imagination; in reality, the dancers were always fully covered.)

Novelist, poet, and art historian Jean-Louis Vaudoyer - the author of the libretto for Le Spectre de la rose - composed the text, each of the seventeen poems inspired by Karsavina's finest roles. And the great illustrator George Barbier designed the twelve color full-page pochoir plates. 512 copies were printed.

The title page, illustrating her rôle in Petrushka.
Carnaval. With Nijinsky and Adolph Bolm.
Narcisse. With Nijinsky.
Jeux. With Nijinsky and Ludmilla Schollar.
Shéhérazade.
Les Sylphides.
Cléopâtre.
Carnaval. With Nijinsky and Adolph Bolm.
La Tragédie de Salomé.
Daphnis et Chloé.
Le Spectre de la rose. With - famously - Nijinsky.

*

Barbier also made another version of La Tragédie de Salomé, I'm not sure for what purpose.



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1 comment:

  1. anonymousJanuary 11, 2023 at 12:50 PM

    oud make for beautiful postcards and illustrations for shopping bags.
    Barbier, so influential. His art was like a bridge between the art nouveau and the art deco.
    Fin de siecle aux nouvelles forms d'art. - Rj/IE

    ReplyDelete