{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O59032"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O59032/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2009CT3251/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2009CT3251/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2009CT3251","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2009CT2269","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2016JG0172","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O59032","accessionNumber":"S.477-2000","objectType":"Print","titles":[{"title":"Narcisse","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"The print depicts a scene from Mikhail Fokine's ballet Narcisse, music by Tcherepnine, designed by Leon Bakst, premiered by by the Diaghilev Ballets Russes, 1911.  The scene comes at the end of the ballet as the woodland creatures see Narcissus transformed into a flower.  \r\nColoured state of S.478-2000 and S297-2019\n\nNarcisse, described as a mythological poem one act, was the first ballet with a classical Greek subject and hurriedly mounted when Maurice Ravel had failed to complete the score for the proposed Daphnis et Chloe. Its subject matter was based on Echo and Narcissus from Metamorphosis by Ovid and focusing on a beautiful Oread (mountain nymph), Echo, who fell in love with the strikingly handsome Boeotian hunter who was obsessed by his own image. \r\n\r\nNarcisse was set in a verdant glade complete with shrine of Pomona and a glassy pool and after woodland creatures have frolicked Boeotian peasants and bacchantes dance and make offerings to the gods setting the scene for the main narrative.\r\n\r\nIt appears that designer Léon Bakst repurposed his original set and costumes for Daphnis et Chloe but some were also re-used in the second work in 1912. Narcisse was first performed by the Ballets Russes on 29 April 1911 at the Théâtre de Monte Carlo. It continued in the repertoire until 1917 and was revived 1923-25. \r\n \r\nBy 1919, there was an increasing interest in Britain in Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and material relating to dance in general.  Beaumont produced a series of booklets under the series title Impressions of the Russian Ballet and a number of plywood figures of 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 although his catalogues record 22 images, the work of Adrian Allinson, Ethelbert White, 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 were employed on both projects.","physicalDescription":"Hand-coloured print by Ethelbert White showing a scene from Mikhail Fokine's ballet Narcisse created for Serge  Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in 1911. Stylised setting of hills and trees with, to right beneath a niche with figures, a pool and large white flower; crawling towards the pool are horned satyrs dressed in green.  Print coloured  in shades of blue green, green and blue with purple highlights. The image is framed by a multiple line border one band of which is coloured clear green, one grass green and one dull blue. signed bottom left 'Ethelbert White' published mid 1920s.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"White, Ethelbert","id":"A5489"},"association":{"text":"Artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"Watercolour","id":"x33202"},{"text":"Gouache","id":"AAT70114"},{"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"},{"text":"Myths & Legends","id":"THES49005"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"T&P","id":"THES48602"},"images":["2009CT3251","2009CT2269","2016JG0172"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"001","id":"THES351407"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Hand-coloured print","id":""}]],"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":"listed in 1928 Beaumont catalogue"}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Cyril W. Beaumont Bequest","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"340","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"378","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"\"Copy\"","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"Pencil","method":"Handwriting","position":"Upper right hand corner","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"Textual information","note":"Textual information; Upper right hand corner; Handwriting; Pencil; Unknown"}],"objectHistory":"Acquired with the Cyril Beaumont collection ","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Hand-coloured print by Ethelbert White showing a scene from Mikhail Fokine's ballet Narcisse created for Serge  Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in 1911.  Published mid- 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":["Narcissus"],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["S.477-2000"],"accessionNumberNum":"477","accessionNumberPrefix":"S","accessionYear":2000,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-23","recordCreationDate":"2001-05-17","availableToBook":true}}