Natalia Goncharova

The City Square. Study for backdrop for the ballet Le Coq d'or

c. 1937

Gouache, watercolor, and pencil on board

Not on view

For the 1937 Col. W de Basil's Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo production (premiere London). Choreography by Michel Fokine. Music by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Goncharova designed the sets and costumes for the original 1914 Ballets Russes premiere of Le Coq d'or and revised her work for the revival by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, a successor company led by Colonel Wassily de Basil. The ballet was based on Aleksandr Pushkin's 1835 poem "The Tale of the Golden Cockerel," which was itself adapted from a Russian fairytale. For this elaborate backdrop for act 3, in which the King and Queen return to a waiting crowd outside the palace entrance, Goncharova drew inspiration from the bold outlines of Russian icon painting and the abstract patterns of peasant embroidery, using tradition to fuel the modern.

Gallery label from

Stage Pictures: Drawing for Performance, March 11–August 24, 2009.

Medium Gouache, watercolor, and pencil on board
Dimensions 18 3/8 x 24 1/2" (46.7 x 61.6 cm)
Credit Acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest (by exchange)
Object number 305.1947
Department Drawings and Prints

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Natalia Goncharova

Natalia Goncharova

Russian, 1881–1962 210 works online

These are the words with which Natalia Goncharova expressed her skepticism toward the prestige that Western art enjoyed in Russia.

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