{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1500048"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1500048/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2020MT2350/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2020MT2350/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2020MT2350","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1500048","accessionNumber":"S.298-2019","objectType":"Print ","titles":[{"title":"Print","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"The print shows a scene from Leonide Massine's ballet Les Matelots, designed by Pedro Pruna, music by Georges Auric, produced by Diaghilev Ballets Russes in 1925.  A sailor becomes engaged to a girl before setting off with his shipmates on a voyage; on the sailors disguise themselves to test the girl's fidelity, but, despite the entreaties of her friend to meet the sailors, she remains true to her fiancé.  \r\n\r\nBy the mid 1920s, there was an increasing interest in the Diaghilev Ballet and material relating to dance in general.  Beaumont produced a series of booklets on individual Diaghilev Ballets under the series title Impressions of the Russian Ballet and a number of plywood figures of Diaghilev dancers in their famous roles.  He then 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 but catalogues show that 22 were produced, the work of Adrian Allinson, Ethelbert White and Randolf Schwabe and Eileen Mayo who had also worked on Impressions of the Russian Ballet booklets and the plywood figures.  \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.\r\n\r\nHistorical significance: Although the link is tenuous, the ballet was the forerunner of the 1940s works dealing with the activities of sailors on shore leave - Jerome Robbins' Fancy Free which was itself the inspiration for the musical and subsequent film On the Town.","physicalDescription":"Uncoloured print by  E[ileen] M[ayo] showing a scene from Leonide Massine's ballet Les Matelots designed by Pedro Pruna created for Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, 1925.  A backcloth showing a harbourside with a background of hills, and silhouette ships in the  harbour; to left a collonade with, in front, a statue of a nude female, centre a figure on a tall column and right a colonnade; far right a wall painted with architectural details. On stage to the left a sailor wearing a striped jersey, trousers and cummerbund with a cap who holds a girl diagonally across his knee.  Centre stage a sailor in a lunge wearing a jersey and trousers and sailor hat, and a standing sailor, right arm raised, wearing a jacket, trousers and a  French sailor cap.  To the right, a large  cube shows a Cupid and a ship. Print signed with the monogram EM.    \r\nThe image is framed by a multiple line border.\n\n","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Mayo, Eileen","id":"A4938"},"association":{"text":"Artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"Printing ink","id":"AAT187371"},{"text":"Paper","id":"x30308"}],"techniques":[{"text":"Printing","id":"AAT53319"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Print in black printers' ink 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":["2020MT2350"],"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":"printed","id":"x46159"},"note":"probably"}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"second half 1920s","earliest":"1925-01-01","latest":"1929-12-31"},"association":{"text":"Published","id":"x30682"},"note":"First listed in 1929 catalogue"}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Cyril W. Beaumont Bequest","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"343","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":"Uncoloured print by  E[ileen] M[ayo] showing a scene from Leonide Massine's ballet Les Matelots designed by Pedro Pruna created for Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, 1925. Published late 1920s.","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.298-2019"],"accessionNumberNum":"298","accessionNumberPrefix":"S","accessionYear":2019,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-18","recordCreationDate":"2019-06-25","availableToBook":true}}