{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O171462"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O171462/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2026PN3467/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2026PN3467/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2026PN3467","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2010EK3884","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AV5885","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AA3363","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AA3389","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AA3390","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AA3402","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O171462","accessionNumber":"S.316-1978","objectType":"front cloth","titles":[{"title":"Le Train Bleu","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"Front cloth incorporating an image of two women of heroic stature, with flowing black hair, whose white tunics leave one breast bare. They are running ecstatically, holding hands, on a grey beach by the sea. The blue sky is lightly barred with whisps of cloud. The cloth is signed, dedicated and dated 'Dedie a Diaghilev Picasso '24'.\n\nThis front cloth was created for the Ballets Russes season coinciding with the Olympiad at the Théâtre des Champs Élyséss, Paris, and was first seen on 26 May 1924. Diaghilev commissioned a fanfare from Auric to be played when it was first revealed. The British dancer Anton Dolin, for whom the ballet,<b> </b><i>Le Train bleu</i>, was created, recalled that it was when the company appeared at the London Coliseum on 24 November 1924 that the cloth was allocated to the ballet with which it is now associated.\r\n\r\nA front cloth is a visual overture seen after the ‘tabs’ or red curtain rises in a western theatre, usually accompanied by a musical overture. Its purpose is to establish an appropriate mood for the production that follows but it does not necessarily contribute to the work’s narrative. A front cloth (sometimes called a drop curtain or drop cloth) may be a painting which has been enlarged if no individual will appear in front of it (which is disastrous for scale). In respect of <i>Le Train bleu</i>, the music composer, Darius Milhaud had included an overture to musically establish the light-hearted mood of the ballet.\r\n\r\nThe ‘Train Bleu’ front cloth was a copy of Pablo Picasso’s <i>The Two Women Running on the Beach (The Race)</i> painted in Dinard in 1922 which Diaghilev has seen in the artist’s studio. The original is small in size 34 x 42.5 cm but in 24 hours Diaghilev’s scenic artist Prince Alexander Schervashidze enlarged the image to 6.78 x 8m on a canvas 10 x 11m – the wide border enabling the cloth to fit within the proscenium arch of theatres varying in size. Picasso was so impressed by the fidelity of the copy that he signed and dedicated the curtain to Diaghilev. When acquired for the V&amp;A it was publicised as the 'largest Picasso in the world' but this is not accurate. The front cloth for <i>Parade</i> (1917), which has no border, is 16 x 10m and Picasso was more involved in its painting (see the photograph by Lachman S.5401-2009). This is held at the Pompidou Centre, Paris. A third Picasso-designed cloth, that for <i>The Three-Cornered Hat</i> (1919), cut down to the central panel so appearing to be just a vast painting, is displayed at the New York Historical Society.\r\n\r\n<i>Le Train bleu</i> was a fashionable portrayal of beach and sporting life in the 1920s, witty and satiric as well as chic. Its final performance by Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes was on 13 May 1925 at the Grand Teatro del Liceo, Barcelona. With many other productions, the cloth passed to the Diaghilev and de Basil Ballet Foundation Ltd who were responsible for its sale. It had been displayed at 'Serge Lifar's Ballets Russes de Diaghilev 1909-1929' at the Musee des arts Decoratifs, Paris, April-July 1939.\r\n\r\nPrince Alexander Schervashidze (1867-1968) was an artist, stage designer and noted scenic artist. The grandson of Abkhazian ruler Sefer Ali-Bey, he was employed by the Mariinsky in St Petersburg, 1907-1918, moving to France after the Russian Revolution. He worked with both Diaghilev and de Basil's Ballets Russes companies and painted several of the theatre cloths in the V&amp;A's collections, including the backcloth for <i>Barabau</i>, based on a 1925 painting by Maurice Utrillo (S.454-1980), and the backcloth and two borders for <i>Protée</i> (1938), designed by Georgio de Chirico (S.1096 to 1098-1983).\r\n","physicalDescription":"Two women of heroic stature with dark flowing hair wearing white tunics that leave one breast bare, running ecstatically, joined hands upheld, along a beach by blue sea. The blue sky  contains white whispy clouds. Copy of  Pablo Picasso’s The Two Women Running on the Beach (The Race) painted in Dinard in 1922  copied by Prince Alexander Schervachidze. The image has a substantial grey surround. Inscribed and signed by Picasso.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Picasso, Pablo","id":"A7073"},"association":{"text":"Designer","id":"x36960"},"note":""},{"name":{"text":"Schervashidze, Alexander Prince","id":"A23716"},"association":{"text":"Artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":"Painted the cloth"}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"gouache","id":"AAT70114"},{"text":"canvas","id":"AAT14078"}],"techniques":[{"text":"painting (image-making)","id":"AAT54216"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Gouache on canvas.","categories":[{"text":"Entertainment & Leisure","id":"THES48959"},{"text":"Dance","id":"THES252984"},{"text":"Theatre","id":"THES250537"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"T&P","id":"THES48602"},"images":["2026PN3467","2010EK3884","2006AV5885","2006AA3363","2006AA3389","2006AA3390","2006AA3402"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"G","id":"THES296990"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Front cloth","id":"THES411819"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"No","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Europe","id":"x28842"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1924","earliest":"1924-01-01","latest":"1924-12-31"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"AAT54216"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by the Friends of the Museum of the Performing Arts","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"1000","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"approximately","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"1100","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"approximately","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Approximately 12 metres long when soft-wrapped. Weight 350kg.","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"Dedie a Diaghilev Picasso '24'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Dedicated to Diaghilev and signed by Picasso"}],"objectHistory":"The cloth (lot 110) was purchased for £69,000 by Richard Buckle on behalf of the Friends of the Museum of the Performing Arts at the auction by Sotheby & Co of Costumes and Curtains from Diaghilev and de Basil Ballets at the Scala Theatre, London, on 17 July 1968. It was passed to the V&amp;A as part of the handover of material from the Friends of the Museum of the Performing Arts in 1976.\n\nIn the 1970s and 1980s it was occasionally lent out for galas, sometimes inappropriately being used as a backdrop.","historicalContext":".Pre V&A it was exhibited in \nSerge Lifar's<i> Ballets Russes de Diaghilev 1909-1929</i> at the Musee des arts Decoratifs, Paris April-July 1939 \nMusée des Augustins, Toulouse in <i>Picasso et Le Théâtre </i>June-September 1965.\r\n\r\nPalazzo Grassi, Venice <i>Omaggio ai Disegnatori di Diaghilev 1909-1929</i> 15 June – 14 September 1975\r\nCentre Culturel du Marais, Paris <i>Les Ballets Russes de Diaghilev 1909-1929</i> 29 November 1977 – 16 March 1978\r\nVictoria and Albert Museum <i>Objects the V&A Collects</i> 31 May – 13 August 1978\r\nBurstow Gallery and Great Hall, Brighton <i>Picasso and the Theatre</i> 1-30 May 1982\r\nLondon Olympia <i>Fine Art and Antiques Fair</i> 2-11 June 1983\nLondon Royal Opera House Sir Anton Dolin Ballet Gala 1983\r\n\nMART Rovereto 2005, \nMonaco and Moscow Tretyakov 2009, \nV&A  <i>Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballets Russes</i> 2010-11 \nGuangzhou Opera House Chanel exhibition 2013\n<i>When Art danced with Music</i> at the  National Gallery, Washington, 2013.\r\nV&amp;A East Storehouse 2025-26","briefDescription":"Front cloth used by Sergei Diaghilev for Bronislava Nijinska's ballet <i>Le Train Bleu,</i> copied from a gouache by Pablo Picasso by the scene painter Prince Shervashidze.","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"Painted from a gouache by Pablo Picasso","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["S.316-1978"],"accessionNumberNum":"316","accessionNumberPrefix":"S","accessionYear":1978,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":["2026PM7653","2026PM7652","2025PC0679"],"recordModificationDate":"2026-07-08","recordCreationDate":"2008-11-04","availableToBook":false}}