{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1655940"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1655940/"}},"images":null,"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1655940","accessionNumber":"S.1028-2021","objectType":"Print","titles":[{"title":"Le Spectre de la rose","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"Print by George Barbier showing Vaslav Nijinsky and Tamara Karsavina as the Spirit of the Rose and the Young Girl in <i>Le Spectre de la rose</i>, as performed by Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. Taken from the volume <i>Designs on the Dances of Vaslav Nijinsky</i> by George Barbier, 1913.\n\nIn the foreward to the volume, Francis de Miomandre decribes how Nijinsky as the Spirit of the Rose 'comes so unexpected, with so mad a shock and yet so madly light that in the white bed-room one cannot tell whether he be the phantom of that gallant partner whom the fair child sighs for in her dreams, or the rose itself - reborn. And one is no wiser when with a spring he disappears into the blue air of dawn, and the silence of reality reconquers space, bewildered by his transit.'\n\n<i>Le Spectre de la rose</i>, choreographed by Mikhail Fokine, was created for Vaslav Nijinsky and Tamara Karsavina in the first season of Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and was first performed on 19 April 1911 at the Théâtre de Monte Carlo. It was danced to Carl Maria von Weber’s 'Invitation to the Dance' and had been suggested by two lines of a poem by Théophile Gautier, ‘I am the spirit of a rose you wore yesterday at the ball.’ In the ballet a girl returns home from her first ball, carrying a rose. She falls asleep in an armchair and in her dream dances with the Spirit of the Rose. She sinks back into the chair as he soars away. Waking, she picks up the rose that has fallen to the floor. Although simply a duet, it was an enormously challenging ballet for the dancers, in spite of being tailored to Karsavina’s lyricism and personal beauty and Nijinsky’s virtuosity and facility in asexual roles that revealed his star quality.","physicalDescription":"The print evokes the mood of the ballet with Nijinsky, as the Spirit of the Rose, guiding the Young Girl's dance. He is in grey-pink and rose petals appear to be falling from him. The background is a wide, multi-paned window with, beyond, trails of roses falling and a crescent moon to show that the scene takes place at night.\n","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Barbier, George","id":"A11253"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"printing ink","id":"AAT187371"},{"text":"paper","id":"x30308"}],"techniques":[{"text":"printing","id":"AAT53319"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Printing ink on paper","categories":[{"text":"Dance","id":"THES252984"},{"text":"Prints","id":"THES48903"},{"text":"Entertainment & Leisure","id":"THES48959"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"T&P","id":"THES48602"},"images":[],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"001","id":"THES356615"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"prints","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Paris","id":"x29068"},"association":{"text":"drawn","id":"x30545"},"note":"This version was printed in London."}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1913","earliest":"1913-01-01","latest":"1913-12-31"},"association":{"text":"printed","id":"x46159"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"John Percival Collection, given by Judith Percival","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"33","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"full page","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"28","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"full page","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"24.6","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"print, including border","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"18.6","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"print, including border","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"'G. Barbier 1913'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Signed on the print in the lower right corner."}],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Print by George Barbier showing Vaslav Nijinsky and Tamara Karsavina as the Spirit of the Rose and the Young Girl in <i>Le Spectre de la rose</i>, as performed by Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. Taken from the volume <i>Designs on the Dances of Vaslav Nijinsky</i> by George Barbier, 1913","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["S.1028-2021"],"accessionNumberNum":"1028","accessionNumberPrefix":"S","accessionYear":2021,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-07","recordCreationDate":"2021-08-31","availableToBook":true}}