Natalia Goncharova (Russian, 1881-1962)


'Apostle' signed (upper right); inscribed 'N.G./#12/N. Gontcharova/43 rue de Seine/Paris 6e/"Apotre"' (on verso) and applied with paper labels from an unknown gallerygraphite on paper55.7 x 43cm (21 15/16 x 16 15/16in).
|ProvenanceSotheby's Parke-Bernet, New York, 6 December 1979, lot 24Acquired from the above by a private New York collectorThence by descentThis pencil drawing served as a preparatory sketch for the costume design of an 'Apostle' for the ballet Liturgie, conceived by Sergei Diaghilev and Léonide Massine in 1915 in Lausanne, Switzerland. Due to the difficulties brought on by the war, as well as the controversial nature of the subject, the life of Christ to be staged as a ballet, the production was never realized. However, the costume designs and stage sets created by Goncharova were widely recognized for their originality and unique interpretation of Russian traditional sources and modernist influences. Deeply interested in Russian folk and Orthodox artistic traditions, Goncharova reformulated and reinterpreted them in her own work. The flat, elongated forms, overlapping planes and pronounced angularity of the drapery of the Apostle's robes in the present drawing exemplify a distinct synthesis of the tradition of Russian icon painting with the ideas of Cubism. Selected works for this production were later published in Paris as pochoir portfolios and preserved in sketch albums. A study for the stage set for the ballet is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.