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Home , Ballets Russes, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Tamara Karsavina, Vaslav Nijinsky

RCEWA – Nijinsky before the Curtain by Glyn Philpot

Statement of the Expert Adviser to the Secretary of State that the painting meets Waverley criteria one and three.

Further Information

The ‘Applicant’s statement’ and the ‘Note of Case History’ are available on the Arts Council Website: www.artscouncil.org.uk/reviewing-committee-case-hearings

Please note that images and appendices referenced are not reproduced.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1. Brief Description of item(s)

• What is it? A painting of the Russian dancer taking a curtain call

• What is it made of? Oil on canvas

• What are its measurements? 755 x 625 mm

• Who is the artist/maker and what are their dates? Glyn Philpot (1884-1937)

• What date is the item? 1913

• What condition is it in? Good

2. Context

• Provenance Sir Philip Sassoon by March 1914; Bequeathed in 1939 to his cousin Hannah Gubbay (d. 1968); [….]; Acquired by a UK private collector in the 1980s and by descent to 2017.

• Key literary and exhibition references Catalogue of an Exhibition of Portraits of Nijinsky by Various Artists, exhibition catalogue, The Fine Art Society, March 1914, no. 29 Cyril Beaumont, Bookseller at the Ballet: Memoirs 1891-1921, , 1975, p. 152 Glyn Philpot (1884-1937), exhibition catalogue, National Portrait Gallery, 1984, p. 16 (as lost work) J.G.P Delaney, Glyn Philpot his Life and Art, Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Ltd, 1999, p. 56 (as destroyed when Sir Philip Sassoon’s house was bombed in the Blitz) 3. Waverley criteria

• Which of the Waverley criteria does the item meet? (If it is of ‘outstanding significance for the study of some particular branch of art learning or history’ which area of art learning or history). Criteria 1 and 3

• Very briefly why? Criterion 1:

Diaghilev’s Russes had a profound impact on British art and culture. They showed how serious and significant an art form ballet could be. Before they visited there was no national school of ballet, and there were no permanent companies, as there were in and many other cities in main-land Europe. Both and worked with Diaghilev’s , and were inspired to create permanent companies in London. Diaghilev also transferred the values of the visual arts to the ballet and there was a profound effect on a generation of British artists who were excited by the exotic costumes and unconventional movements of the Ballets Russes. Philpot’s painting is a unique representation of Vaslav Nijinsky on stage in London, representing a specific moment in this important phase of British cultural history.

Criterion 3:

Philpot’s painting is of unique importance for historians of . Nijinksy was the greatest male dancer of his generation, and an innovative choreographer. This painting shows him as dancer in the first ballet he choreographed and thus capturing both important aspects of Nijinsky’s historical and cultural significance. The painting not only shows a specific historical moment, but also approaches the representation of the dancer in a very unusual way. Philpot explores the moment when the performer is no longer performing but is still in role, before acknowledging the presence and applause of the audience. Representations of Nijinsky in British collections are very rare and this is a major and unique work that is of national importance for the study of dance history.

DETAILED CASE

1. Detailed description of item(s) if more than in Executive summary, and any comments.

What does it depict?

The painting depicts Vaslav Nijinksy, premier danseur of Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes company taking a curtain call after a performance of L’Apres-midi d’un faune. It shows Nijinsky in his costume as the Faun, coming out between the curtains of the Royal House, , where the ballet received its UK premiere in 1913. Nijinsky is shown still in character, a half-wild creature sliding out between the plush red tabs of the theatre, his attitude reflective of the ballet he has just performed. His extended right hand is holding the hand of one of his fellow dancers who he is leading out from behind the curtain. He is shown facing the audience, but his stance and his left hand show the stylised movement he created for the ballet. His face is turned to the audience, and he is in that moment when the performer is still in role, when he has not yet left his character to return to ‘himself’ in order to acknowledge the presence and applause of the audience.

What does it tell us about that period?

The has been the main venue for the lyric arts in London since it opened in 1858. In the early years of the 20th century, short seasons of opera and ballet coincided, and were very much part of, the London Social Season. The great society hostesses supported the performances and entertained the performers. The painting, by an artist who painted many society figures, reflects the close relationship between performances at the Royal Opera House and the social elite. The productions by the Ballets Russes had a huge impact on art and design in Britain. British artists were excited by the exotic costumes and unconventional movements of the Ballets Russes. Many depicted specific performers, but the impact of the Ballets Russes on British art was also aesthetic and formal encouraging artists and designers to experiment with simplified forms, brighter palettes and the representation of movement.

Who made it/painted it/wrote it?

The artist is Glyn Philpot. Having made his early reputation as a portraitist, Philpot began to paint ballet subjects in 1908, culminating in his representations of Nijinsky and in 1913. Alongside his successful career as a portraitist, he began to paint large allegorical figure paintings from 1919. He was elected RA in 1923 at the early age of 38. Philpot always continued to make imaginative paintings alongside his portrait commissions. until his premature death in 1937. In his final years he made a powerful series of portraits and sculptures of his Jamaican servant and model Henry Thomas.

No. of comparable items by the same artist already in the UK, in both public and private collections?

Philpot’s work is well represented in British public collections, and it is the subject of this painting that is particularly significant in relation to the Waverley criteria. There is no comparable item in the UK, in either public or private collections. The majority of the very few representations of Nijinsky in British collections are sketches and drawings. Philpot’s work is unique in being a large-scale painting that shows him in character on stage.

2. Detailed explanation of the outstanding significance of the item(s).

Significance of figures associated with the item(s): maker/client/owners?

The painting’s first owner was the renowned collector Sir Philip Sassoon who bought it soon after it had been painted.

Significance of subject-matter?

Vaslav Nijinsky was considered the finest male dancer of his generation. Trained in St Petersburg, he joined the Imperial Theatre in 1907. Diaghilev brought him to for the first season of the Ballets Russes, where Nijinsky created a sensation with his technical and musical abilities. Tamara Karsavina, his ballerina in many ballets, writing after his death said a ‘sense of music seemed to permeate his body. Nijinsky’s dance was music made visible....His dancing set a standard for which there cannot be found any comparison in our times’. Dancing Times, May 1950

In 1910, Nijinsky began work on the choreography for his first ballet, L’Apres-midi d’un faune. In it, he created a new dance style, drawing inspiration from figures on Greek vases and reliefs. The enduring significance of this work is acknowledged by Clement Crisp who, writing in the Financial Times Magazine 21/22 Jan 2006, chose Nijinsky’s ballet as no. 2 in a series of Arts Defining Moment: ‘How Nijinsky’s L’Apres-midi d’un faune broke with convention, and changed ballet for ever. What Nijinsky created was a personal, long- considered language, conceived solely for this brief work, speaking of sexuality as it had never been seen before in ballet...Nothing in ballet since Faune has so broken with its past, so compellingly, so beautifully.’

Philpot’s painting also made a big impact when it was exhibited. Reviewing the 1914 Fine Art Society Exhibition, Portraits of Nijinsky, Sir Claude Phillips wrote:

‘This incomparable Russian dancer ... whose leaps, bounds, and gyrations, astonishing as they appear, are less so than the ‘winding bouts of linked sweetness long drawn out’,... has found many artists ready to depict and to model him in his favourite roles. Mr Glyn Philpot’s Nijinsky Before the Curtain gives very effectively, from a purely spectacular standpoint, a picture of the faun, spotted like the pard, crossing the footlights.’ (Uncredited cutting from the Nijinksy Person File, Department of Theatre and Performance, Victoria and Albert Museum)

Another review of the exhibition, discusses the ‘Pictures by Mr Sargent and Mr Glyn Philpot. In some ways the two most vivid things there are Mr. Philpot’s sketch of M.Nijinsky as the Faun gliding between the footlights and the curtain to take his applause, and Mr. Sargent’s swift sketch of the dancer’s head...But neither of these is photographic, the colour of the former making it more expressive than any photograph could be.’ (Uncredited cutting from the Nijinksy Person File).

Significance of materials/process/usage?

The majority of representations of Nijinsky are drawings and sketches, three paintings by Jacques Emile Blanche of Nijinsky in costume for were shown in the Portraits of Nijinsky exhibition in 1914, but these were painted from specially posed photographs made in Blanche’s studio. Philpot’s work is a unique oil painting of the dancer on stage in L’Apres-midi d’un faune.

Is/are the item(s) of local/regional/national importance?

The item is of national importance. It is hard to over-estimate the effect that the seasons by Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes had on the arts in the West. In the UK, ballet had declined into an entertainment that was mostly seen during performances of opera, or in the music halls. There was no national school of ballet, and there were no permanent companies, as there were in Russia and many other cities in main-land Europe. Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes showed how serious and significant an art form ballet could be.

Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes gave their first performances in the West in Paris in 1909, to huge acclaim. The dancers were praised for their virtuosity, and the productions for their lavish design. Diaghilev believed that all the arts associated with the creation of a ballet should be given equal significance: the music, design, and literary inspiration were as important as the choreography. The company came to London in 1911 and, in the years up to Diaghilev’s death in 1929, gave nearly half their performances in the UK. The company would not have survived without the financial success that the London seasons gave it. Both Ninette de Valois and Marie Rambert worked with Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, and were inspired to create permanent companies in London. Rambert created the first permanent in the UK, that exists today as , a contemporary dance company but still working with the same aesthetic propounded by Diaghilev. De Valois, a British dancer who claimed to have ‘danced on every pier in ’, learnt from Diaghilev the importance of a national school and company. She founded the Academy of Choreographic Art in 1928 and the Vic-Wells Ballet in 1931. Her Academy is now School, and the Company The Royal Ballet, since 1946 the resident ballet company at the Royal Opera House, with a second company, Royal Ballet, resident in Birmingham.

Philpot’s painting is an important part of the rich and varied response by British artists to the Ballets Russes, It is a rare representation of the audience’s and performer’s experience within the theatre in a similar way to the music hall scenes of Walter Sickert. While society painters courted the principal performers, many other British artists were excited by the exotic costumes and unconventional movements of the Ballets Russes, and much of its impact was aesthetic and formal. Avant-garde artists were inspired to experiment with simplified forms, brighter palettes and the representation of movement. Ballet themes were used as vehicles for dynamic movement in works such as David Bomberg’s series of lithographs c. 1914-19 or Bruce Turner’s Pavlova c. 1912 (Tate). The critic Raymond Drey wrote of the link between the Ballets Russes and abstract painting: ‘If these ballets had been stopped suddenly at any moment … the spectator would have seen that each gesture and each group played an allotted part in a set geometrical design.’ (New Weekly, ) Designs made for the Omega Workshops (Courtauld) and decorative schemes such as the murals for The Cave of the Golden Calf 1912 by Spencer Gore also showed the influence of the Ballets Russes. Roger Fry invited two of Diaghilev’s designers, and to exhibit at the Second Post-Impressionist exhibition in 1912-13.

Summary of related items in public/private ownership in the UK

There are very few original representations of Nijinsky in the UK, these include:

Victoria and Albert Museum

• Drawings by Valentine Gross, pencil and crayon, drawn in Paris, 1912. Drawn during rehearsals and performances, they show dancers in costume with stylised backgrounds. • Sculpture by Una Vincent Troubridge, 1912, head of Nijinsky as The Faun • Costume design by for Nijinsky in Le Pavillon d’Armide. Whilst not strictly a portrait, the dancer is recognisably Nijinsky • Fashion plate by George Barbier, 1913

Royal Ballet School Special Collections

• Sketches by : Nijinsky with Diaghilev, Nijinsky with other members of the Ballets Russes. These are not in costume • Colour plates, 1913

Royal Opera House Collections

• Sketches by Mikhail Larionov: Nijinsky with other members of the Ballets Russes. Not in costume

Private Collections • Oil paintings by Jacques-Emile Blanche of Nijinsky in costume painted from photographs posed in Blanche’s studio, Vaslav Nijinsky dans les Orientales, 1912, and Study for Nijinsky dans les Orientales, 1911, Private Collection London

(For works in Overseas Collections see Appendix 1)