{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1500035"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1500035/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2020MT2399/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2020MT2399/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2020MT2399","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1500035","accessionNumber":"S.299-2019","objectType":"Print ","titles":[{"title":"Eileen Mayo print","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"The print shows a scene from George Balanchine's ballet La Chatte, designed by Gabo and Pevsner, music by Henri Sauguet, book by Sobeka (Boris Kochno) after Aesop, produced by Diaghilev Ballets Russes in 1927.  A Young Man falls in love with a cat and in answer to his prayers, Aphrodite transforms her into a girl.  They fall in love, but Aphrodite puts the girl to the test by tempting her with a mouse, whereupon the girl pursues it and she is transformed back into a cat.  \r\n\r\nThe set and costumes were executed in the then new material, talc, flexible, transparent and reflective.  The shimmering, fantastic structure was set on and against floor and walls of gleaming black American cloth.  The gleaming rhomboidal structure above the set symbolised the Aphrodite.  \r\n\r\nBy the1920s, there was an increasing interest in the Diaghilev Ballet and material relating to dance in general.  Beaumont had already produced a series of booklets on individual Diaghilev Ballets under the series title Impressions of the Russian Ballet and a number of plywood Diaghilev dancers in their famous roles.  He added a series of hand coloured prints of typical scenes from the Diaghilev Ballet repertory.   He kept no records of when he began publishing the prints nor how many were produced, although catalogues from 1923 list the prints of which 22 images were reproduced. These were the work of Adrian Allinson, Ethelbert White, Randolf Schwabe and Eileen Mayo, who also worked on Impressions of the Russian Ballet booklets and the plywood figures.\r\n  \r\nIn all these works, Beaumont strove to capture the exact moments of the ballet as well as artists' interpretations.  Possibly the design of each print followed the painstaking search for accuracy that had characterised the creation of the illustrations for Impressions of the Russian Ballet series, described in Bookseller at the Ballet - choosing the significant moment, watching the ballet night after night to check details of the poses and grouping (not easy when the stage was full of individual dancers and movement), going backstage to sketch scenery and borrow costumes - although some prints appear to be 'composite' rather than specific tableaux.  \r\nMost of the hand-colouring for Impressions of the Russian Ballet booklets was the work of Beaumont and his wife, Alice, and it is possible that both were also involved in colouring the prints, although eventually other artists including Mayo, were employed on both projects.","physicalDescription":"A stylized setting in Constructivist style in black and white with to the right an elaborate geometric construction of screens, walls, cubes and planes surmounted by a stylized figure in rhomboidal form surmounted by an oval the lower half cut with high arches, symbolizing legs.  On a curved section, a male dancer, facing diagonally to the right kneels on the left leg, wearing a stylized geometric headdress, a one-shoulder leotard with full length left sleeve and leg shields below the knee; facing him is a female dancer wearing a headdress in the form of two cones and a strapless short dress, with a stiff conical skirt.  Upstage left enter a line of four men wearing sleeveless leotards with narrow bands across the body and a 'circle' around the waist, and geometric headdresses. \nPrint signed with the monogram EM in lower left hand corner.  \r\nThe image is framed by a multiple line border.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Mayo, Eileen","id":"A4938"},"association":{"text":"Artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":"Print signed EM"}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"Printing ink","id":"AAT187371"},{"text":"Paper","id":"x30308"}],"techniques":[{"text":"Printing","id":"AAT53319"},{"text":"Hand colouring","id":"AAT133555"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Print coloured by hand in watercolour and gouache on paper","categories":[{"text":"Entertainment & Leisure","id":"THES48959"},{"text":"Dance","id":"THES252984"},{"text":"Prints","id":"THES48903"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"T&P","id":"THES48602"},"images":["2020MT2399"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"001","id":"THES351407"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Print","id":"AAT41273"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Great Britain","id":"x32019"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"probably"}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1928-1929","earliest":"1928-01-01","latest":"1929-12-31"},"association":{"text":"Published","id":"x30682"},"note":"Included in Beaumont's 1929 catalogue for the first time"}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Cyril W. Beaumont Bequest","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"342","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"375","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Print by Eileen Mayo of a scene from George Balanchine's ballet La Chatte, created for Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, 1927.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Beaumont, Cyril, Bookseller at the Ballet, Memoirs 1891-1929: London, C. W. Beaumont, London, 1975.  426p., ill.  Z325.B35"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["S.299-2019"],"accessionNumberNum":"299","accessionNumberPrefix":"S","accessionYear":2019,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-18","recordCreationDate":"2019-06-24","availableToBook":true}}