The Russian Ballet in Western Europe 1909–1920

Various artists/makers

Not on view

Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes was celebrated thus, that it became part of history while it was still very much alive. In 1920, the New York gallery Knoedler & Co. organized exhibitions of the designs of Leon Bakst, and a first retrospective of the Russian Ballet in Western Europe was published in London in 1921. Celebrated in particular was the company’s ability to transport its audiences to a world of fantasy and wonderment. This experience was greatly welcomed at a time when Europe and the United States were recovering from the devastation of World War I (1914-18), as captured in this quote from this publication: ‘We have our despair, our sadness, our violated love and this thing, most dread of all – the passing of the days between our hands (…). But in the Spring, the Russian Ballets and Nijinski return. And all is forgotten.’

The Russian Ballet in Western Europe 1909–1920, Walter Archibald Propert (British, active 1920s), Illustrations: photomechanical reproductions and color lithographs

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