Nijinsky (Vaslav).- Benois (Alexandre Nikolayevich, designer for the Ballets Russes under Sergei Diaghilev, 1870-1960) Original costume design for Nijinsky in the Ballets Russes production of 'Le Pavillion d'Armide', pen and black ink with watercolour over pencil, signed in pencil and extensively annotated by the artist, inscribed 'Le Pavillon d'Armide", 2me version au Théâtre de Châtelet a Paris, Premier spectacle de la première saison des Ballets Russes du S. Diaghilev, Mai 1909', upper left, and at the right side 'Costume de Vaslav Nijinsky dans le rôle de l'Esclave favori d'Armide (1re apperition de Nijinsky devant le public Parisien), Pas de trois avec Mlle T. Karsavina et Alexandra Fedorova', sheet 335 x 255 mm (13 1/4 x 10 in), bears circular ink stamp 'Paris, Douanes, Exposition' verso, framed, [circa 1909-1930s]

Provenance:
Eardley Knollys, friend and associate of the Bloomsbury Group, artist, critic and owner of the Storran Gallery, London.

Exhibited:
'Benois', Storran Gallery, London, ca.1941, no. 38 (full page illus.)

⁂ An important design relating to the very first production to be staged by Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, in Paris in 1909, making it also, as noted on this design, the very first sight the Parisian audience would have of this rising star, Nijinsky.

Alexandre Benois can claim a huge amount of the credit for this ballet, writing the libretto and designing the sets as well as the costumes. It was choreographed by Michel Fokine, with music written by Nikolai Tcherepnin. When first performed at the Mariinsky, the principal dancers alongside Nijinsky were Anna Pavlova as Armida and Pavel Gerdt as Vicomte René de Beaugency. When it transferred to the Théâtre de Châtelet in Paris, those roles were first performed by Vera Karalli and Mikhail Mordkin, respectively.

Benois produced related designs not only at the production's first inception, but for its revised staging in Paris and again, significantly, in the 1930s as he reflected on and re-imagined some of his work as he assembled his memoirs for eventual publication in 1941 and prepared for the dedicated one-man show at the Storran Gallery. The present drawing would appear to be from the later reflections, highlighting his continuing and evolving fascination with this pioneering ballet.