{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O59064"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O59064/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2016JG0153/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2016JG0153/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2016JG0153","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O59064","accessionNumber":"S.479-2000","objectType":"Print ","titles":[{"title":"Midnight Sun","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"The print depicts a scene from Leonide Massine's ballet Midnight Sun (Soleil de nuit), first produced by the Diaghilev Ballets Russes in 1915.  The scene depicts the Snow Maiden dancing for the villagers, shepherds and the village fool.  \r\n\nThe dancers, joined by the shepherds in white smocks and the village fool, sat down in a circle to watch the dance of the Snow Maiden (danced to the Song of Lel sung off-stage by Zoia Rosovska). Cyril Beaumont described how Lopokova had ‘a childlike buoyancy well suited to [the music]; with her extraordinary elevation, and fluttering arm movements, she was the personification of a young girl in love, her beauty and gaiety overshadowed by foreknowledge of her tragic end.' s the Snowmaiden she was fated to melt in the sun.","physicalDescription":"The print shows the peasants watching the Snow Maiden dance in Le Soleil de nuit or The Midnight Sun as it was performed from 1918. Against a blue backcloth are hung a circle of stylized orange suns with smiling faces, beneath which on a yellow stage, a circle of seated dancers, the women at the back and sides wearing exaggerated Russian folk dress with huge kokoshniks in shades of mauve and green with yellow 'folklorique' designs, five men with backs turned across the front four wearing white tunics with pale blue decorations, one wearing an unadorned tunic; in the centre a female dancer wearing a white long dress and headdress with orange yellow and green 'folklorique' decorations.  The wings have geometric designs in blue, orange and pale green.  \nHand-coloured print signed Ethelbert White.  \r\nThe image is framed by a multiple line border one band coloured clear green, one orange and one pale blue.\n\n","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"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"T&P","id":"THES48602"},"images":["2016JG0153"],"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":""}],"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":[{"content":"\"Midnight Sun\"","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"Pencil","method":"Handwriting","position":"Reverse centre top","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"Textual information","note":"Textual information; Reverse centre top; Handwriting; Pencil; Unknown"}],"objectHistory":"Cyril Beaumont collection\r\nBeaumont in support of the Ballets Russes publish a series of plywood figures of dancers in their most famous roles, booklets; Impressions of the Russian Ballet and finally from  single prints of works. In these he could include popular works for which there was not enough narrative to include in the Impressions series. He kept no record of what he produced but there appear to have been  x prints in all, the work of Adrian Allinson, Ethelbert White and Randolf Schwabe  and Eileen Mayo.  \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\n\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.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Hand-coloured print showing a scene by Ethelbert White of Leonide Massine's ballet Midnight Sun (Soleil de nuit), performed by Diaghilev Ballets Russes, published ca.1921.","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.479-2000"],"accessionNumberNum":"479","accessionNumberPrefix":"S","accessionYear":2000,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-23","recordCreationDate":"2001-05-18","availableToBook":true}}