Alexandre Benois, 
Russian 1870-1960- 
Costume study for Tchaikovsky's ballet Le Casse Noisette...

Alexandre Benois, 
Russian 1870-1960- 

Costume study for Tchaikovsky's ballet Le Casse Noisette (The Nutcracker); 

pencil, pen and black ink, and watercolour on paper, signed with initials 'AB' and dated '1937' (lower right), further extensively inscribed, with attached fabric swatch, 36.3 x 25.4 cm. 

Provenance: 
The Collection of Peter C. Provatoroff (1898-1963). 
Private Collection, UK. 

Note: 
The illustrious Provatoroff name has long been associated with superlative Russian Art. Peter Provatoroff was a merchant, furrier and racehorse dealer, who left significant works by Konstantin Somov (1869-1939), Ilya Repin (1844-1930), Konstantin Yuon (1875-1958) and Alexandre Benois to the Tate Galleries in 1964. Like so many Russian families that emigrated following the 1917 revolution, the Provatoroffs lived in Berlin and Paris before settling in London in around 1925.

The present work is one of the costume designs produced by Benois for the 1938 production of 'The Nutcracker' at La Scala in Milan, choreographed by Margharita Frohman (1890-1970) to music by Piotr Tchaikovsky (1840-1892). It is possibly intended for the character of Clara's Grandmother to be worn during Act I: The Party Scene. Benois was a seminal figure in the history of Russian art, founding the art movement 'Mir iskusstva' with contemporaries Sergei Diaghilev (1872-1929) and Léon Bakst (1866-1924), which served to promote Art Nouveau in Russia. He is however probably best-known for his work as a stage designer, and is particularly celebrated for the designs he created for the Ballet Russes, under Serge Diaghilev, including, notably, those for Petrushka (1911) and Giselle (1910).