![[Dance] [Ballets Russes] White, Ethelbert. (1891 - 1972) Original hand-coloured wood engraving of a scene from the ballet "Thamar."](http://www.schubertiademusic.com/cdn/shop/files/Ballets_Russes_Thamar_ptg_9618.jpg?v=1722187746)
[Dance] [Ballets Russes] White, Ethelbert. (1891 - 1972). Original hand-coloured wood engraving of a scene from the ballet "Thamar.". The British ballet historian Cyril Beaumont (1891-1976) commissioned White to execute a number of prints that would faithfully record performances by the Ballets Russes in London. The present image illustrates one of the scenes of the 1912 production of "Thamar," with a set by Leon Bakst. Print, fully colored by hand in gouache, 36.5 x 33 cm. Mounted to rigid backing, paper borders toned and with some surface tears and stains from prior mounting, the image itself fine.
The subject of the life of Thamar, Queen of Georgia from 1184 to 1213, was transformed in the spirit of nineteenth-century Romanticism, becoming a symbol of nationalist pride in the face of growing Russian cultural dominance in the Caucasus. Russian poet Mikhail Lermontov fictionalized Thamar’s history within his interpretation of a Georgian legend of a malevolent seductress in his 1841 poem, Tamara, and it was this version, along with Balakirev’s symphonic poem Tamara, that inspired Bakst and Fokine for the Ballets Russes production of Thamar in 1912. Bakst’s looming set dramatized Thamar’s isolated court in her castle in the treacherous Terek River and provided a stark background for his sumptuous and richly detailed costumes for the queen, her courtiers, guards and suitors.
The subject of the life of Thamar, Queen of Georgia from 1184 to 1213, was transformed in the spirit of nineteenth-century Romanticism, becoming a symbol of nationalist pride in the face of growing Russian cultural dominance in the Caucasus. Russian poet Mikhail Lermontov fictionalized Thamar’s history within his interpretation of a Georgian legend of a malevolent seductress in his 1841 poem, Tamara, and it was this version, along with Balakirev’s symphonic poem Tamara, that inspired Bakst and Fokine for the Ballets Russes production of Thamar in 1912. Bakst’s looming set dramatized Thamar’s isolated court in her castle in the treacherous Terek River and provided a stark background for his sumptuous and richly detailed costumes for the queen, her courtiers, guards and suitors.
[Dance] [Ballets Russes] White, Ethelbert. (1891 - 1972). Original hand-coloured wood engraving of a scene from the ballet "Thamar.". The British ballet historian Cyril Beaumont (1891-1976) commissioned White to execute a number of prints that would faithfully record performances by the Ballets Russes in London. The present image illustrates one of the scenes of the 1912 production of "Thamar," with a set by Leon Bakst. Print, fully colored by hand in gouache, 36.5 x 33 cm. Mounted to rigid backing, paper borders toned and with some surface tears and stains from prior mounting, the image itself fine.
The subject of the life of Thamar, Queen of Georgia from 1184 to 1213, was transformed in the spirit of nineteenth-century Romanticism, becoming a symbol of nationalist pride in the face of growing Russian cultural dominance in the Caucasus. Russian poet Mikhail Lermontov fictionalized Thamar’s history within his interpretation of a Georgian legend of a malevolent seductress in his 1841 poem, Tamara, and it was this version, along with Balakirev’s symphonic poem Tamara, that inspired Bakst and Fokine for the Ballets Russes production of Thamar in 1912. Bakst’s looming set dramatized Thamar’s isolated court in her castle in the treacherous Terek River and provided a stark background for his sumptuous and richly detailed costumes for the queen, her courtiers, guards and suitors.
The subject of the life of Thamar, Queen of Georgia from 1184 to 1213, was transformed in the spirit of nineteenth-century Romanticism, becoming a symbol of nationalist pride in the face of growing Russian cultural dominance in the Caucasus. Russian poet Mikhail Lermontov fictionalized Thamar’s history within his interpretation of a Georgian legend of a malevolent seductress in his 1841 poem, Tamara, and it was this version, along with Balakirev’s symphonic poem Tamara, that inspired Bakst and Fokine for the Ballets Russes production of Thamar in 1912. Bakst’s looming set dramatized Thamar’s isolated court in her castle in the treacherous Terek River and provided a stark background for his sumptuous and richly detailed costumes for the queen, her courtiers, guards and suitors.