Jean Cocteau (French, 1889-1963),Advertising Poster: Ballet Russe, Soirée du 19 Avril 1911, Théâtre de Monte-Carlo (Nijinsky in Spectr

Description:

Jean Cocteau (French, 1889-1963)

Advertising Poster: Ballet Russe, Soirée du 19 Avril 1911, Théâtre de Monte-Carlo (Nijinsky in Spectre de la Rose)
Signed "-Jean/Cocteau." within the matrix l.l., published by Eugène Verneau and
Henri Chachoin, Paris.
Color lithograph on paper, sight size 36 x 22 3/4 in. (91.2 x 57.8 cm),framed.
Condition: Toning, creases, abrasions, rippling, not examined out of frame.

N.B. In a description of a similar poster in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the entry explains that, "the young French poet and artist Jean Cocteau was dazzled by the Ballets Russes and its star dancer, Nijinsky, when they appeared in Paris in 1909. Cocteau wrote of Nijinsky's animal grace: with his 'slender young torso contrasting with overdeveloped thighs, he is like some Florentine, vigorous beyond anything human, and feline to a disquieting degree'." For the 1911 Ballets Russes season Cocteau designed two posters of the same size, the other depicting the ballerina Tamara Karsavina as the young girl in Mikhail Fokine's ballet Le Spectre de la Rose" (Lot 343) (1).

1. http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O75904/ballets-russes-poster-cocteau-jean/ (accessed 7/23/13)
Estimate $8,000-12,000


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