Detail View: ADJUNCT MODULE C: WORLD ART: Backdrop Designs, Ballet Theatre of New York Production, Aleko

Collection: 
ADJUNCT MODULE C: WORLD ART
Preferred Title: 
Backdrop Designs, Ballet Theatre of New York Production, Aleko
Image View: 
Wheatfield on a Summer’s Afternoon; study for backdrop for Scene III, detail
Creator: 
Marc Chagall (Belorussian painter, 1887-1985)
Location: 
repository: Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) (New York, New York, United States) 137.1945.1; 137.1945.2; 137.1945.3; 137.1945.4
Location Note: 
1380, rue Sherbrooke Ouest; Chagall: Colour and Music (Exhibition, January 28 to June 11, 2017)
GPS: 
+45.4987-73.5801
Date: 
1942 (creation)
Cultural Context: 
American
Style Period: 
Twentieth century
Work Type 1: 
cartoon (working drawing)
Work Type 2: 
watercolor (painting)
Classification: 
Drawings and Watercolors
Material: 
gouache; tempera; graphite; colored pencil
Technique: 
aquarelle (technique); drawing (image-making)
Subjects: 
literary or legendary; music; Labor unions; Performing arts; folkloric; dreamlike; dance; ballet
Description: 
Created for the 1942 Ballet Theatre of New York (now the American Ballet Theatre) production (premiere Mexico City). Chagall accompanied the Ballet Theatre troupe to Mexico, where, outside the jurisdiction of American stage-painters' unions, he was able to help execute his designs. Chagall was given the chance to draw upon his memories of Russia through the production of Aleko, a ballet based on a poem by Alexander Pushkin and set to Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Trio in A Minor. The story follows an aristocratic youth who joins a band of Romany ("gypsy") travelers, falls in love with the chieftain’s daughter, and eventually murders her when she leaves him for another man. This was his first work for the ballet. These works are studies for the large backdrop paintings, in the MOMA collection. (Source: Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) [website]; http://www.lacma.org)
Image Description: 
15 1/4 x 22 1/2" (38.7 x 57.2 cm); inventory number 137.1945.3
Collection: 
Archivision Adjunct Module C: World Art
Identifier: 
7A1-CHAGALL-ALBD-C02
Rights: 
© Scott Gilchrist, Archivision, Inc.