{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1309994"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1309994/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2021MY8066/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2021MY8066/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2021MY8066","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2021MY8067","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1309994","accessionNumber":"S.797-2014","objectType":"Illustration","titles":[{"title":"Petrushka","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"Preliminary illustration drawn and coloured by Michael Sevier for the frontispiece to C. W. Beaumont, <i>Impressions of the Russian Ballet Petrouchka</i>, 1919 (also transliterated as <i>Petrushka</i>). It shows the opening of the fourth scene with the two gipsies on the balcony of a booth watching the nursemaids (who have removed their coats), coachmen and grooms dancing. As Beaumont describes 'Resuming their dance they join hands and whirl in a circle; dresses billowing, handkerchiefs held on high and gaily fluttering in the breeze....The male bystanders, visibly stirred...taking up their positions ... launch into one of those pulsing folk-dances whose vivacity, pleasantry and careless abandon so well express the brighter side of the Russian temperament.'Behind the crowd can be see the puppet booth with its blue decorative curtain and beyond a ferris wheel and the Admiralty spire. The ballet's designer revelled in the opportunity to put on stage the pre-lentern (Butterweek) fair in St Petersburg which flourished in the earlier part of the 19th century. \n\r\n<i>Petrouchka</i> was choreographed by Mikhail Fokine and designed by Alexandre Benois to an original score by Igor Stravinsky for Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in 1911. It returned to the repertoire of the Ballets Russes in London after the War on the opening night of the season at the Alhambra Theatre, 30 April 1919, when Léonide Massine played the title role. Beaumont appears to have planned this volume in the series during that season and as he notes he ‘entrusted the illustrations to a Russian artist'.\r\n\r\nBeaumont commented that ‘Few of those who have read those little books would realize the work that went into them. Once the episode for illustration had been chosen, my collaborator and I had to watch the ballet night after night until the particular group or pose appeared, and during that brief moment check up on all details of the poses. In the interval, we would go behind and sketch the scenery while it was being set, and note the details of the costumes from the dancers, as they strolled on the stage before the ballet.’ Beaumont <i>The Diaghilev Ballet in London A Personal Record</i> (London: Putnam, 1940, p.141).\n","physicalDescription":"","artistMakerPerson":[],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"pencil","id":"x30347"},{"text":"ink","id":"AAT15012"},{"text":"watercolour","id":"x33202"},{"text":"art board","id":"x33244"}],"techniques":[{"text":"drawing (image-making)","id":"AAT54196"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Pencil, ink and watercolour on art board","categories":[{"text":"Entertainment & Leisure","id":"THES48959"},{"text":"Dance","id":"THES252984"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"T&P","id":"THES48602"},"images":["2021MY8066","2021MY8067"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"003","id":"THES352254"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"illustrations","id":"AAT15578"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"London","id":"x28980"},"association":{"text":"drawn","id":"x30545"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1919","earliest":"1919-01-01","latest":"1919-12-31"},"association":{"text":"drawn","id":"x30545"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Cyril W. Beaumont Bequest","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"27","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":"height of illustration within ink border"},{"dimension":"Height","value":"29.7","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":"height of board"},{"dimension":"Width","value":"26.8","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":"width of illustration and board"}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"'red'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Pencil mark on illustration indicating decoration on the fair booth should be coloured red, not blue."}],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Illustration of the nursemaids, coachmen and grooms dancing at the Butterweek Fair in Scene 4 of <i>Petrouchka</i>, drawn by Michael Sevier for <i>Impressions of the Russian Ballet Petrouchka</i>, 1919 (also transliterated as <i>Petrushka</i>)","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["S.797-2014"],"accessionNumberNum":"797","accessionNumberPrefix":"S","accessionYear":2014,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-16","recordCreationDate":"2015-03-09","availableToBook":true}}