![[Ballets Russes] [Nijinsky, Waslaw. (1889-1950)] Ker-Xavier Roussel (French, 1867-1944) Portrait of Vaslav Nijinsky, "étude pour l'Apres midi/d'un Faune."](http://www.schubertiademusic.com/cdn/shop/files/Nijinsky_Roussel_Drawing182.jpg?v=1722186538)
[Ballets Russes] [Nijinsky, Waslaw. (1889-1950)] Ker-Xavier Roussel (French, 1867-1944). Portrait of Vaslav Nijinsky, "étude pour l'Apres midi/d'un Faune.". A moving portrait, initialed and inscribed in the lower left corner: "K.X.R./ étude pour l'Apres midi/d'un Faune." Graphite on paper, sheet size 6 7/8 x 4 7/8 inches. Paper backed, tape hinged, minor acid burn, minor handling creases. Provenance: Daniel Sickles, Paris, France; Hans Peter Kraus, New York; Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (née Braman) Grasso, Essex, Connecticut. Literature: [Collection Daniel Sickles] Bibliothèque d'un Amateur, Très Beaux Livres Illustrés Modernes Dans d'Importantes Reliures dont 53 Signées de Pierre Legrain, Exemplaires uniques dont Les Fleurs du Mal Illustrées par Rouault, Deuxieme partie, Paris: Musée Galliéra, 21 May 1963 (no. 265); Kraus, H.P., The Illustrated Book, Catalogue 108, no. 138, 1964.
The work was one of eight original drawings included in a presentation copy of "Souvenirs d'un marchand de tableaux" by Ambroise Vollard, published by Éditions Albin Michel in 1937, which was pen inscribed and gifted to Vollard's chauffeur Marcel Z. Méraud. In a pair of letters to Matisse, now in the Archive Matisse, Meraud shares his enthusiasm for the gift from Vollard: "Mr. Fabiani had to tell you about the book that Mr. Ambroise Vollard dedicated to me; among other things, it is the first book out of the printing press that Mr. Vollard gave to me, saying, "Marcel, the first is for you!" Within this book are [works by] Mr. Vollard's art colleagues and friends...the best souvenir, with the nice dedication of Mr. Vollard and fine drawings by artists that I had the pleasure of seeing regularly without knowing more intimately."
The influential Nabis artist, Roussel, had been profoundly influenced by Nijinsky's choreography and dancing in "Afternoon of a Faun," the famous Parisian "succès de scandale" of 1912. "At some point Vollard commissioned Roussel to illustrate Mallarmé's 'L'Apres midi d'un Faun,' and beginning in 1919-23 Roussel made a number of...works on the motif of the sleeping nymphs and spying faun that may have been intended for the project." (Gloria Groom in "Cézanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant-Garde," p. 95)
Among others, Roussel's later "The Cape of Antibes," (1928) clearly evokes the sensuality of the work and references some of the poses from the dance. In the artist's general preoccupation with pastoral pagan themes - his works are frequenly populated by fauns and nymphs - and in the figure of Nijinsky, Roussel "had found…exactly what he was looking for, beings made up of sensuality and grace who feel themselves eternally young, protected from old age and death" (Charles Chassé, The Nabis and their Period, London, 1969, p. 65). The present portrait is a remarkable part of the record of representation of the great dancer, done by one of the major artists of the period.
The work was one of eight original drawings included in a presentation copy of "Souvenirs d'un marchand de tableaux" by Ambroise Vollard, published by Éditions Albin Michel in 1937, which was pen inscribed and gifted to Vollard's chauffeur Marcel Z. Méraud. In a pair of letters to Matisse, now in the Archive Matisse, Meraud shares his enthusiasm for the gift from Vollard: "Mr. Fabiani had to tell you about the book that Mr. Ambroise Vollard dedicated to me; among other things, it is the first book out of the printing press that Mr. Vollard gave to me, saying, "Marcel, the first is for you!" Within this book are [works by] Mr. Vollard's art colleagues and friends...the best souvenir, with the nice dedication of Mr. Vollard and fine drawings by artists that I had the pleasure of seeing regularly without knowing more intimately."
The influential Nabis artist, Roussel, had been profoundly influenced by Nijinsky's choreography and dancing in "Afternoon of a Faun," the famous Parisian "succès de scandale" of 1912. "At some point Vollard commissioned Roussel to illustrate Mallarmé's 'L'Apres midi d'un Faun,' and beginning in 1919-23 Roussel made a number of...works on the motif of the sleeping nymphs and spying faun that may have been intended for the project." (Gloria Groom in "Cézanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant-Garde," p. 95)
Among others, Roussel's later "The Cape of Antibes," (1928) clearly evokes the sensuality of the work and references some of the poses from the dance. In the artist's general preoccupation with pastoral pagan themes - his works are frequenly populated by fauns and nymphs - and in the figure of Nijinsky, Roussel "had found…exactly what he was looking for, beings made up of sensuality and grace who feel themselves eternally young, protected from old age and death" (Charles Chassé, The Nabis and their Period, London, 1969, p. 65). The present portrait is a remarkable part of the record of representation of the great dancer, done by one of the major artists of the period.
[Ballets Russes] [Nijinsky, Waslaw. (1889-1950)] Ker-Xavier Roussel (French, 1867-1944). Portrait of Vaslav Nijinsky, "étude pour l'Apres midi/d'un Faune.". A moving portrait, initialed and inscribed in the lower left corner: "K.X.R./ étude pour l'Apres midi/d'un Faune." Graphite on paper, sheet size 6 7/8 x 4 7/8 inches. Paper backed, tape hinged, minor acid burn, minor handling creases. Provenance: Daniel Sickles, Paris, France; Hans Peter Kraus, New York; Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (née Braman) Grasso, Essex, Connecticut. Literature: [Collection Daniel Sickles] Bibliothèque d'un Amateur, Très Beaux Livres Illustrés Modernes Dans d'Importantes Reliures dont 53 Signées de Pierre Legrain, Exemplaires uniques dont Les Fleurs du Mal Illustrées par Rouault, Deuxieme partie, Paris: Musée Galliéra, 21 May 1963 (no. 265); Kraus, H.P., The Illustrated Book, Catalogue 108, no. 138, 1964.
The work was one of eight original drawings included in a presentation copy of "Souvenirs d'un marchand de tableaux" by Ambroise Vollard, published by Éditions Albin Michel in 1937, which was pen inscribed and gifted to Vollard's chauffeur Marcel Z. Méraud. In a pair of letters to Matisse, now in the Archive Matisse, Meraud shares his enthusiasm for the gift from Vollard: "Mr. Fabiani had to tell you about the book that Mr. Ambroise Vollard dedicated to me; among other things, it is the first book out of the printing press that Mr. Vollard gave to me, saying, "Marcel, the first is for you!" Within this book are [works by] Mr. Vollard's art colleagues and friends...the best souvenir, with the nice dedication of Mr. Vollard and fine drawings by artists that I had the pleasure of seeing regularly without knowing more intimately."
The influential Nabis artist, Roussel, had been profoundly influenced by Nijinsky's choreography and dancing in "Afternoon of a Faun," the famous Parisian "succès de scandale" of 1912. "At some point Vollard commissioned Roussel to illustrate Mallarmé's 'L'Apres midi d'un Faun,' and beginning in 1919-23 Roussel made a number of...works on the motif of the sleeping nymphs and spying faun that may have been intended for the project." (Gloria Groom in "Cézanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant-Garde," p. 95)
Among others, Roussel's later "The Cape of Antibes," (1928) clearly evokes the sensuality of the work and references some of the poses from the dance. In the artist's general preoccupation with pastoral pagan themes - his works are frequenly populated by fauns and nymphs - and in the figure of Nijinsky, Roussel "had found…exactly what he was looking for, beings made up of sensuality and grace who feel themselves eternally young, protected from old age and death" (Charles Chassé, The Nabis and their Period, London, 1969, p. 65). The present portrait is a remarkable part of the record of representation of the great dancer, done by one of the major artists of the period.
The work was one of eight original drawings included in a presentation copy of "Souvenirs d'un marchand de tableaux" by Ambroise Vollard, published by Éditions Albin Michel in 1937, which was pen inscribed and gifted to Vollard's chauffeur Marcel Z. Méraud. In a pair of letters to Matisse, now in the Archive Matisse, Meraud shares his enthusiasm for the gift from Vollard: "Mr. Fabiani had to tell you about the book that Mr. Ambroise Vollard dedicated to me; among other things, it is the first book out of the printing press that Mr. Vollard gave to me, saying, "Marcel, the first is for you!" Within this book are [works by] Mr. Vollard's art colleagues and friends...the best souvenir, with the nice dedication of Mr. Vollard and fine drawings by artists that I had the pleasure of seeing regularly without knowing more intimately."
The influential Nabis artist, Roussel, had been profoundly influenced by Nijinsky's choreography and dancing in "Afternoon of a Faun," the famous Parisian "succès de scandale" of 1912. "At some point Vollard commissioned Roussel to illustrate Mallarmé's 'L'Apres midi d'un Faun,' and beginning in 1919-23 Roussel made a number of...works on the motif of the sleeping nymphs and spying faun that may have been intended for the project." (Gloria Groom in "Cézanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant-Garde," p. 95)
Among others, Roussel's later "The Cape of Antibes," (1928) clearly evokes the sensuality of the work and references some of the poses from the dance. In the artist's general preoccupation with pastoral pagan themes - his works are frequenly populated by fauns and nymphs - and in the figure of Nijinsky, Roussel "had found…exactly what he was looking for, beings made up of sensuality and grace who feel themselves eternally young, protected from old age and death" (Charles Chassé, The Nabis and their Period, London, 1969, p. 65). The present portrait is a remarkable part of the record of representation of the great dancer, done by one of the major artists of the period.