The Russian Ballet

Artist David Bomberg (Birmingham, England, 1890 - 1957)

Date1919

Mediumcolour lithograph on paper

ClassificationsPrints

DimensionsImage Size: 6 x 11.8cm
Paper Size: 13.3 x 21.7cm

AcquisitionPurchased in 1978 with assistance from the National Fund for Acquisitions.

LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub

Object numberABDAG000152.1

Keywords

About MeOne of a set of six colour lithographs with blank verse poems by the artist created to commemmorate the return of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. The volumes were manufactured by Bomberg (who had learnt lithography whilst apprenticed to the lithographer Paul Fischer in c.1906) and bound into their wrappers by his wife, in an edition of about 100 copies.

The book was the last time that Bomberg would work in a vorticist idiom. After witnessing the carnage of the First World War at first hand, he was to lose his faith in modernism and instead develop a looser, expressive style, based predominantly around landscapes in his later works.

The loose-leaved booklet was not issued officially although Bomberg attempted to sell copies in the theatre at 2/6- each. Diagalev immediately put a stop to the sale. The bulk of the edition was then acquired by the Vorticist bookshop and publisher Henderson's Bomb Shop. About ten were sold and then Henderson withdrew them as unsaleable. After being withdrawn from Henderson's Bomb Shop, the remaining stock was bought by art dealer Jacob Mendelson, who had helped finance the project in the first place, with a £30 investment. These remainders stayed in storage until the 1960s, when interest in Bomberg began to be rekindled. No sooner had Mendelson started to sell off the copies which had been in storage for 40 years, than most of the remaining books were destroyed in a fire. They are consequently very rare.

More About Me

Collections Wall

The angular lines in this lithograph give a feeling of movement in keeping with the title 'The Russian Ballet'.

Exhibitions

Paradise Lost