ROM WITH LOVE COSTUMES FOR THE RUSSES 1909-1933

• national gallery of australia © National Gallery of Austral ia, Ca nberra ACT 2600, 1998. Thi s publi cation accompanies the ex hibition From Russia with Love: All rights reserved. No pa rt of th is publication may be reproduced Costumes for the 1909- 1933 orga nised by the or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or National Gallery of Australia and curated by Roger Leong mechanica l, including photocopy, record ing, or any information and Christine Dixon, National Ga llery of Australia. retr ieva l system, w ithout permiss ion in w riting from the publisher. Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth Ed ited des igned and produced by the Pub li cations Department 6 Feb ruary- 5 Apri I 1999 of the National Gi:dl ery of Austra lia, Ca nberra. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Des igned by Kirsty Morriso n 15 May- 1 August 1999 Edited by Susa n Hall Co lour separations by Co lou rboxDigita l Printed by Lamb Printers LENDERS TO THE EXHIBITION

CONTRIBUTORS The Australian , M elbourne

Roger Leong is Ass istant Curator, Intern ational Decorative Arts, A.A. Bakhrushin State Centra l Theatre M useum, Nati onal Gallery of Australi a, Ca nberra. Comi te Andre Masson, Natalia Metelitsa is Deputy D irector, Hea d of Research and Intern ational Relations at the St Pete rsburg State Museum Musee national d'art moderne- Centre de creation industr iell e, ofTheatre and Music, St Petersb urg. Ce ntre Georges Pompidou, Paris

Nancy Van Norman Baer was Curator, Th eater and Dance National Film and So und Archive, Ca nberra Collection, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Osterreichisches Th eatermuseum, Vienna Lynn Garafola is a free lance dance critic and historian livi ng in New Yo rk. St Petersburg State Museum ofThea tre and M usic

Sarah Woodcock is Research Ass istant at the Theatre M useum Theatre Museum, Victori a and A lbert Museum, London of the Victoria and A lbert Museum, London. Victori a and Albert Museum, London Michelle Potter is Manage r of the Keep Dancing project, Nati onal Film and Sound Arch ive, Ca nberra.

Cataloguing-in-Publication-data

From Ru ss ia w ith love: costumes for the Bal lets ru sses 1909- 193 3

ISBN 0 642 5411 6 7

1. Diaghilev, Serge, 1872 - 1929 - Exh ibitions. 2. Ballets russes­ Exhibitions. 3. Ballet - Costume - Exhibitions. 4. Ball et - Stage­ settin g and sce nery - Exhibitions. I. Leong, Roger, 1961 - . II. National Gallery of Austra li a.

792.80940749471

(front cover) Alexandre Benois Costu me for a musician in Le Pavilion d'Armide (deta il ) National Ga llery of Australia, Ca nberra © Alexandre Benois, 1909/ADAGP, Reproduced by permi ss ion of VISCO PY Ltd, (back cover) Michel Larionov Costume des ign for the Chief Clown in Chout Victoria and A lbert Museum, London © M ichel Lari onov, 1915/ADAGP. Reproduced by perm iss ion of VISCO PY Ltd, Syd ney (fronti sp iece) Count Jean de Strelecki Portrait of Serge Diaghilev St Pete rsburg State Muse um of Th eatre and Music U HE SEXUAL ICONOGRAPHY OF THE BALLETS RUSSES

The Ballets Ru sses transformed just about every aspect of ballet during th e twenty yea rs of its existence. From the art of ball et to its enterpri se and audience, nothing was left untouched. In the wake of Serge Diaghilev there could be no question of returning to th e past without ackn owledging the profound changes wrought or set in motion by his company. This being th e case, it is indeed curious that the company's influence on th e iconographi c representation of ballet has been largely ignored. Although certain images are invoked ad infinitum, they are seldom viewed within th e larger context of dance iconography or as conveying certain ideas about gender. In fact, th ey are prima fac ie evidence of a newly forged link between ballet and the elite homosexual milieux that were attracted to the Ballets Russes.

Ball et before Diaghilev, especially in the West, was a largely fema le world. Most dancers were women, including those who partnered th em pretend ing to be young men, and most ballets had heroines as their protagonists . In Paris as in London, femal e pu lchritude was at a premium. 'Young and pretty dancers required immediately', advertised the Nouvea u-Th eatre in 1897, th e sa me yea r th at Panorama Paris s'amuse- an album of photographs of the Opera's leading dance rs - displayed them, according to an an nouncement in Figaro, in a 'hundred delicious attitudes of coquetry, passion, or gra ce'.' It was the great subject of Edgar Degas, this Opera ballet world of the late nineteenth century, with its evan es cent tulle and careless physicality, a ghetto of the feminine off-l imits to men, except for the occasiona l voyeur. Degas was not alone in treating the Opera this way. However, in the pa intings of Georges Clairin (think of his portrait of Virginia Zucchi in the Bibliotheque de l'Opera ) or the drawings of Paul Renouard , the erotic appeal is overt, as it is in posters of the period and the titillating dressing room photographs. Th e many postca rds of dance rs suggest the popularity and ambiguous appea l of such images.

Th e Ballets Ru sses did not bring an end to this trade in images . It did alter their content and the means by w hich they circulated. Rath er than fema le, the subject nearl y always was male and the image usually published in a limited -edition format. Male dancing was certainly one of th e grea t revel ations of Diaghilev's earl y ballet seasons. However, it was not th e 'straights' featured in those seasons - Mikhail Mordkin, Adolph Bolm, Michel Fokin e, the two Koslov brothers - w ho in sp ired the new iconography, but rath er the sexuall y ambiguous Vasl av Nijinsky. To be sure, Nijinsky was a magnificent dancer, the star around whom Diaghi lev built virtually his entire pre-war rep ertory. But he was also Diaghi lev's lover, the only dancer (with th e partial exception ofTamara Kars avina and Ida Rubinstein) to enjoy entree into the privileged circles in w hich Diaghilev trave lled. Among these was the eli te homosexual world of Jea n Cocteau and Comte Robert de Montesquieu, Baron de Meyer and Princesse de Polignac, Marcel Proust and Romaine Brooks - the core, 'insider' audience for the albums by George Barbier, Paul Iribe, Georges Lepape, and Robert Montenegro 2 that now borrowed th e iconography of 'decadence' and Art Nouveau to 'homoeroticise' the body of th e Ba ll ets Ru sses star.

(left) George Barbier N ijinsky as th e Golden Slave and Rubinste in as Zobeide in Scheherazade from Designs on the Dances o fVas lav Nijinsky National Ga llery of Austra lia Resea rch Library, Ca nberra (oppos ite) Auguste Bert Nijinsky as the Golden Slave in Scheherazade from E.O. Hoppe, Studies fro m the Russian Ballet National Ga llery of Australia, Ca nberra

56 57 58 60 Beaumont goes on to contrast Nijinsky with Adolph Bolm, 'the true embodiment of manlike vigour and masculine virility'. He recalls Bolm, the company's principal character dancer, as he appeared in his most famous role, the Polovtsian chief in Oanses polovtsiennes du Prince Igor (The Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor), a warrior 'mad with triumph and excited with the lust of war', leaping wildly, bow held high while amid arrows 'loosed in sheer frenzy'. 'Roles such as [this]', concludes Beaumont, 'are impossible for Nijinsky.'1 2

Although he had a riveting stage presence, Nijinsky was not especially good-looking. This was hardly the case of his successor, Leonide Massine, whom Diaghi lev discovered at th e Bolshoi, made the star of La U!gende de joseph (The Legend of Joseph), and marketed as a beautifu I boy as well as his latest discovery. However Massine, although living with Diaghilev for nearly seven years, did not present himself as homosexual. Where Nijinsky had drawn attention to his body, Massine did just the opposite. Indeed, nearly all the roles he choreographed for himself during this period, from the Chinese Conjuror in Parade to the C~n-Can Dancer in La Boutique fantasque (The Magical Toyshop), either masked his body or made it comic or grotesque in some way, more often than not effectively neutering it. In fact, Massine did nothing to capitalise on his good looks. He refused to be a pin-up, gay or straight.

The young men who succeeded him in Diaghilev's affections could not have been more different. For one thing they were savvier: they knew the game and were happy to play it. 13 For another, they had no qualms about flaunting their charms in public. There is a photograph of Anton Dolin as Beau Gosse in the 1924 beach ballet Le bleu (The Blue Train). 14 He wears an old-fashioned bathing suit, with straps over the shoulders and cut low in front, revealing well-developed pectorals. His gaze is unabashedly direct, not a question, or an appeal, but a statement and a challenge: Here I am, take me. This gaze, strong, direct and seductive, also appears in the pictures of taken by Man Ray and other photographers in the years that followed. Lifar was Diaghi lev's last leading man, 's first and , a diamond in the rough remade as a Deco god. All swagger as the Officer in Barabau (in some pictures he is shown brandishing a sword), he mugs flirtatiously as the French sailor in Les Matelots (The Sailors); in Romeo et juliette he gazes through a harlequin's mask, while in La Pastorale he wears a toothy grin and heavy lipstick.15

With Dolin and especially Lifar reappear elements of Nijinsky's erotic packaging - the slim waist, the indiscreet nipple, the make-up, the artful pose and gesture. Except that now the image displays a new toughness, the angular, hard-edged look of modern design combined with an insistence on the body's physical musculature. Often the legs are naked, with thongs laced high up the calf; belts cinch the waist; the chest is hairless; the pectorals, abdominals and thighs have the sinewy hardness of an athlete's.

(opposite) Leon Bakst Costume design for a Bc:eotian youth in Narcisse St Petersburg State Museum of Theatre and Music; (above) Leon Bakst Costumes for a Bc:eotian youth and girl in Narcisse (detail) National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; (left) Anton Dolin as Beau Gosse in 1924 Kochno Archives, Bibliotheque nationale de , Paris

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(oppos ite) Leon Bakst Costumes for nymphs in L'Apres-midi d'un (au ne National Gallery of Austra li a, Canberra; (a bove top) Leon Bakst Set des ign for L'Apres-midi d'un (a line Musee national d'art moderne - Ce ntre de creation industri elle, Ce ntre Georges Pompidou, Pa ri s (above left) Baron Adolf de Meyer N ijinsky as the Faun in L'Apres-midi d'lIn (au ne 191 2 Bibliotheque nationale de France, Par is (above ri ght) Baron Adolf de Meyer Sce ne from L'Apres-midi d'un (a line 19 12 Bibliotheque nationale de France, Pa ri s

63 Such toughness was not limi ted to the stage, but reflected - or, at least, paralleled - changes in the homosexual audience at large . Complaining about th e 'bea utiful burgeoning boys' who crowded London performances of th e Ba llets Ru sses in the late 1920s, Vogue critic Herbert Farjeon observed: Th e velvet-voiced youth of twenty w ho has taken possess ion of the Ru ss ian Ballet is more formidable than his aesthetic predecessor of thirty or forty years ago. H e is not so drooping, not so languishing, he does not court the interesting pallor of former days . O n th e contrary, he is surprisingly pink in th e cheek, surprisingly fit, surprisingly unready to go down like a ninepin.16

Beca use photographs c irc ulated to a broad audience - th e ones in question, for insta nce, were published in magazines as well as company programs - the express ion of homoeroticism was circumspect. How ever, in limited editions su ch as Eil een M ayo's album of drawings of Lifar published in England in 1928,17 th e homoerotic content is more explicit. Thi s is particularl y noti ceable in th e drawings based on photographs: in almost every instance they exaggerate the su ggestiveness of the pose, the arch of the torso, the pout of th e lips, th e bul ge of a ca lf, buttock or thigh. In playing up both th e butch physicality and th e narcis sism of th e ori ginals, th e artis t makes Lifar an icon of gay des ire.

Like earlier representati ons of Nijinsky, Mayo's drawings typica lly depi ct Lifar alone. In a sense they are only marginally conce rn ed w ith dance, using it as an excuse for displaying the attractions of a phys ically active body in moti on, of minimising th e wantonness of sexually provocative movements performed by men. In fact, th ey are closer to erotica than dance images, offering a limited number of spectators a source of private delectation . O nly 500 copies of the M ayo book were printed, and relati ve ly few of th e images were reproduced elsewhere. Four hundred copi es of Barbier's book on Nijinsky were printed, and just over 900 of the Iribe-Coctea u volume. Such figures lend support to the argument that with the Ballets Ru sses the male dance r beca me a subj ect of homosexu al eroti ca, just as images of the female dance r had previously figured in its heterosexual counterpart.

In any number of way s the M ayo album harked ba ck to th e ea rlier tradition associated w ith N ij insky. Th e link is ev ident not onl y in the format and graphic style but also in the iconography - the feath ers, fabrics and props that se rve as fetishes, th e exposed nipples, the artifice of th e surrounding scene, even some of th e poses. Indeed, it is hard to believe that M ayo was unaware of Barbier's Designs on the Dances of Va slav Nijinsky. Both books w ere published by Bea umont, and each contained an essay by him. Here w as the beg inning of a gay tradition that Ca rl Van Vechten and George Pl att Lynes would pick up and elaborate upon in photograph y.18

To be sure, not all images of Lifar highlighted his virility. Indeed, in 1929 The Sketch, a popul ar London illustrated magaz in e, published a 'decoration' by Felix de Gray 19 that barely distinguished betwee n Lifar in the title role of Apollon musagetes (Apoll o) and two of the Muses that se rved him: all wore pl eated, thigh-skimming tunics, looked to th e side in profile, had generous hips and limply extended arm s. Whereas th e Muses gambolled in the background on demi-pointe, Apollo stood on full pointe, a pose that onl y underscored his effeminacy, pointe work being traditionally the domain of women. In a certa in sense, th e image neutrali sed th e homoeroticism of Lifar's image by overtl y feminising it.

Eileen Mayo Lifar as Boreas in Zephire et Flore from Serge Lifar National Ga llery of Australia Resea rch Li brary, Ca nberra, Feint Co llection

64 Whi le the 1930s witnessed a return to more conventional representations of gender in ballet, the homoerotic trad ition associated with the Ba llets Russes did not va nish . It simply went underground, becoming a part of th e era 's burgeo ning gay literary and visual cu lture. A lthough ballet remains pre-eminently an art practised and consumed by women, it has come to be rega rded as a gay art, inherently so in the view of some scholars. Yet, as the sea change in early twentieth-century iconography cl ea rl y demonstrates, there is nothing intrinsica lly gay about ballet any more than there is anything intrinsica lly straight about baseball. Ballet became a magnet for gay men beca use of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, which was not only a showcase for gay male ta lent and gay male th emes, but also a meeting ground where gay men could socialise relatively free of the constraints of th e closet. Although for millions of li ttle girls, ba llet remains a vision of tutus and Sugar Plums, for gay men it represe nts - at least in part and largely th anks to Diaghilev - a homoeroti c nirvana, where the display of male beauty and des ire for th e male body ca n be experi enced within th e safe haven of high art.

Lynn Ga rafola

1. 'Petites Nouvelles', Figaro, 23 March 1897, p.5; 'Courrier des Theatres', Figaro, 7 March 1897, p.3. 2. See, for instan ce, George Barbier, Designs on the Dances ofVaslav Nijinsky, foreword Fran cis de Miomandre, tran s. CW. Bea umont, London: CW. Bea umont, 1913; and Jea n-Loui s Va udoyer, Album dedh§ a Tamar (s ic) Karsavina, Pa ri s: Pi erre Conrad, 1914; Robert M ontenegro, Va slav Nijinsky: An artistic appreciation of his work in black, white and gold, foreword by Cyril W. Bea umont, London: CW. Bea umont, 1913; . Six vers de . Six dessins de Paullribe, Par is: Soci ete Generale d'impression, 1910. For Georges Lepape's Nijinsky drawings, some of w hich were published in Ballets Rus ses souvenir programs, see Claude Lepa pe and Thi erry Defert, From the Ballets Russes to Vogu e: The art of George Lepape, trans. Jane Brenton, London: Thames and Hudson, 1984. 3. See Natalia Metelitsa's essay 'From St Petersburg to Pari s', in this publication pp.24- 39, for a discuss ion of Mir iskusstva. 4. 'Lozhnye voprosy: Nash mnimyi upadok' (Complicated Q uestions: O ur supposed decline), Mir iskusstva, 1: 1- 2, 1899, p. 3. 5. I am gratefu l to Simon Karlinsky for thi s info rm ation. 6. The Yellow Book was a British illustrated quarterl y that appea red from 1894 to 1897. Close ly associated with the Aesth eti c Movement and Art Nouveau, it published th e work of many distinguished artists and w riters, including Aubrey Beardsley (who was th e art editor), Max Bee rbohm', Henry James, Edmund Goss e, and Walter Si ckert. 7. The image appea red in 'Osnovy kudozhestvennoi otsenki' (principles of Art Criticism), Mir iskusstva, 1: 3-4, 1899, p.54. Illustrations by and articles about Bea rd sley appea red in a number of issues, underscoring John Bowlt's contention that the journal revea led 'a distinct predilection for the graphics of Bea rd sley' Uohn E. Bowlt, Th e Silver Age: Russian art o f the ea rly twentieth century and the 'World of Art' group, Newtonville, Mass.: O riental Research Partners, 1979, p.63) . 8. For rep roducti ons of these nudes, see Nijinsky, un dieu danse a travers moi, ca talogue of an exhibition at the Musee-Galerie de la Seita, Paris, 15 December 1989- 17 February 1990, pp.80, 96, 97; and Claude Ave line and Michel Dufet, Bourdelle and the Dance: Isa dora and Nijinsky, Paris, Arted, Editions d'Art, 1969, pis 91-4. 9. Thi s is especially cl ea r in Barbier's various treatments of Scheherazade. See, for instance, the two unnumbered plates in Nijinsky; 'Mile Rubinstein, sous les traits de Zobeide', Le Theatre, December 19 11 , 2, n.p.; 'Ida Rubinstein and Nijinsky in "Scheheraza de''', Cata logue of Ballet and Theatre Material, London: Sotheby Parke Bernet, 25 M ay 1977, lot 35 . 10. Quoted in Cyril W. Bea umont, Bookseller at the Ballet, London : C W. Beaumont, 1975, p.88. Bea umont was quoting Annes ley Graham, the editor of th e short-lived magaz ine, Th e Interlude, w hi ch Bea umont'published and to which he contri buted two essays, written under the pseudonym Leonard Hamilto n. 11. Cyri l W. Bea umo'nt, 'Vasl av Nijinsky: An Artistic Appreciation of His Work', in Montenegro, Vaslav Nijinsky (1913) n.p. 12. Ibid. 13. Anton Doli n w rote in Last Words: A final autobiography, London: Century Publishing, 1985, pp.31-2, w hich was published posthumously: 'When I went to Pari s to audition for Diagh il ev in September 1923, I think I rea li sed, th ough not in a worldly-w ise way, what was in store for me there. Diaghflev had made his interest in me apparent, although not overt, during th e London seaso n, when I had bee n a shy youth of seventeen. Now here I was at th e age of ninetee n, hav ing grow n up a little and learned a lot, well developed, and a good enough dancer, I was confident, to join hi s company as a principal. So mewhere in my mind I knew that th is wou ld put my relationship w ith him on a differen t footing.' 14. Thi s photograph is reproduced in Bori s Kochno, Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes, trans. Adrienne Foulke, New York: Harper and Row, 1970, p.2 17. 15. Most of these photograph s are reproduced in th e company's souvenir program s. Otherwise, the best collection is to be fo und in Andre Levinson, Serge Lifar: Destin d'un danseur, Pari s: Grasset, 1934. 16. Herbert Farj eon, 'Seen on th e Stage', Vogue (British edition), 11 Jul y 1928, p. 80. 17. Serge Lifar: Sixteen drawings in black and white by Eileen Mayo, foreword by , tran s. Sacheverell Sitwell, apprec iation by Cyril W. Beaumont, London: C W. Beaumont, 1928. 18. For Ca rl Va n Vechten, see Jon athan Weinberg, "'Boy Crazy": Ca rl Va n Vechten's Quee r Coll ection', Th e Yale Journ al of Criticism, 7: 2 , 1994, pp. 25-49; for George Pl att Lynes, see James Crump, 'Iconography of Desire: George Pl att Lynes and gay male visual culture in postwar 'New York', in George Platt Lynes: Photographs From the Kinsey Institute, introd. Bru ce Weber, Boston: Littl e, Brown, 1993, pp.149-56. 19. 'A de Gray Decoration on a Russi an Ballet Theme', The Sketch, 3 Jul y 1929, p. 22 .

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