Curtain design for "Le Diable s'amuse" (Devil's Holiday)
Eugene Gustavovitch Berman American, born Russia
Related composer Vincenzo Tommasini Italian
Related composer Niccolò Paganini Italian
Not on view
Berman's drawing relates to Devil's Holiday (Le Diable s'amuse), a ballet premiered by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo on October 26, 1939 at New York's Metropolitan Opera. Sets and costumes were designed by Berman, with choreography by Frederick Ashton and music by Vincenzo Tommasini based on themes by Niccolò Paganini.
The artist here represents a proposed curtain as a draped sheet pinned to a wall. Its trompe l'oeil surface supports the image of a second wall layered with plaquards and posters, including a portrait of Paganini playing a violin–his name inscribed on an adjacent pink board. To the right there is an archway topped with a mask through which we see figures in an Italian piazza.
