Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Deer and Flamingo

Léon Bakst
1866-1924

Deer and Flamingo

20th century
12 5/8 x 9 7/16 inches (320 x 240mm)
Watercolor and blue gouache with graphite on paper.
2009.18

The Joseph F. McCrindle Collection.

Notes
Stamped on verso at lower right, in blue ink, "Bakst."
In addition to being a painter and draftsman of renown in St. Petersburg and Paris, Léon Bakst was also a costume and stage designer for much of his career. His work for Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, especially from 1909 to 1914, has been referrred to as a period in which Bakst dominated the Ballets Russes (Michelle Potter, "Designed for Dance: The Costumes of Léon Bakst and the Art of Isadora Duncan," Dance Chronicle vol. 13, no. 2 (1990), p. 154). This drawing predominantly executed in flat, decorative planes of color features a brightly rendered deer and flamingo; their toes are "en pointe" as if dancing to accompaniment. Bakst has included a border in graphite, which vaguely resembles the structure of a stage.
Inscriptions/Markings
Inscribed on verso, at bottom left in blue ink, "14-IV-67 / Je soussigne certifie que cette ouevre / est entièrement de la main de mon oncle / Léon Bakst. B. Tsipkervitch [?]"
Artist
Classification
Century Drawings