‎"[BALLETS RUSSES] - DE BRUNOFFF, DIAGHILEV, APOLLINAIRE, COCTEU, BAKST, PICASSO etc.‎
‎Collection des plus beaux numéros de Comoedia illustré et des programmes consacrés au Ballets & Galas Russes depuis le début a Paris 1909-21. - [THE GREATEST REVOLUTION IN THE HISTORY OF THEATRE AND BALLET]‎

‎Paris, (1909-21). Folio. Silk over bevelled boards. Front board with a splendid large inset colour illustration (from ""The Firebird"" by Natalia Gontcharova). Binding sunned and with professionally restored spine. Corners a bit bumped. A bit of creasing to extremities of some leaves, as the size varies somewhat. A few loose leaves. Profusely illustrated in colour (some pochoir) and in black/white throughout. A very nice copy of this magnificent book. 4 pp., being title-page and note from the editors +1909: 2 pp. introduction + 1909 Saison Russe - Opera et Ballet: 10 pp., including a cover illustration by Bakst +1910: 3 pp. introduction + cover illustration of Comoedia Illustré no. 18 (June 15, 1910) with portrait of Catherine Gheltzer + Comoedia Illustré special issue - supplement to no. 18: 14 pp., including two cover illustrations by Bakst +1911: 2 pp. introduction + Programme Officiel des Ballets Russes. Théâtre du Châtelet. June 1911: the extra goldembellished transparent paper covers + 34 pp., including cover illustration by Bakst (Nijonsky in La Péri) and another eight illustrations by Bakst (costume designs for Narcisse and Dieu Bleu and stage design for Narcisse) + 10 pp. from the sixth season of the Ballets Russes at Chatelet, with costumes by Jean Cocteau + 10 pp. on ""Petrouchka"" and ""Schérezade"" + ""Le Carnaval"" + 1 leaf of text introducing ""Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien"": 12 pp. from Comoedia Illutré devoted to this, including a cover illustration by Bakst (showing Ida Rubinstein as St. Sebastien) +1912: 2 pp. introduction + Comoedia Illustré 7th season: 16 pp. devoted mainly to ""Dieu Bleu"" and ""Daphnis et Chloé"", including cover illustration by Bakst and a further five illustrations by Bakst (costume designs, decor and scene) + 5 pp. from Comoedia Illustré on ""Le Dieu Bleu"" + 1 p. being the illustrated cover for the June 1912 special issue of Comoedia Illusté, showing Karsavina and Bolm in Thamar (costumes by Bakst) + 8 pp. on ""Thamar"", ""Petrouchka"", and ""Scherezade"", including the 4 pp. spread on ""Scherezade"" that is laid in loose and which contains illustrations of Bakst's nine costumes + two covers mounted back-to-back from the special issue of the seventh season of the Ballets Russes, showing Bakst's illustration of Nijinsky in ""L'Après-Midi d'un Faune"" + 8 pp. on ""L'Apres Midi di Faune"" + 10 pp. from Comoedia Illustré on ""Le Carnaval"", ""Daphnis et Chloé"" + 2 pp. (""title-page"" for Ida Rubinstein in ""Hélène de Sparte"" and Salomé) + special issue on ""Hélène de Sparte"": 16 pp., including cover illustration by Bakst (of Ida Rubinsein as Helen) and a further five costume and scenic designs by Bakst + 6 pp. from Comoedia Illustré on Helen of Sparta + 4 pp. from Comoedia Illustré on Oscar Wilde's ""Salomé"" + 20 pp. including illustrations by Bakst for ""Boris Godounoff"", text on and illustrations for ""Jeux"", ""Sacre du Printemps"", ""Kowanchina"", and ""Daphnis et Chloé"" +1913: 2 pp. introduction + Eigth Season of Ballets Russes: 6 pp., including cover illustration of Schollar, Nijinsky, and Karsavina in ""Jeux"" by Valentine Gross + 1 p. (""title-page"" for Ida Rubinstein in ""La Pisanelle ou la Mort Parfumée"" with costumes by Bakst + Comoedia Illustré No. 18, June 1913: 17 pp., including cover illustration of Ida Rubinstein in ""La Pisanelle, in couture by Worth, decor by Bakst, etc. +1914: 2 pp. introduction + 28 pp. on the Ballets Russes 1914-season, including a full-page illustration of Kousnetzoff in costume by Bakst, , costume designs for ""La Légende de Joseph"" by Bakst, and a two-page costume-spread for ""Rossignol"" by Benois + 2 pp. on ""Le Rossignol"" by Maurice Ravel"" + 4 pp. from Ballets Russes on ""Le Coq d'Or"" + 2 pp. on ""Les Ballets Russes de Serge de Diaghilew"" by Calvocoressi + 1915: 1 p. introduction +1917: 1 p. introduction + the special issue of ""programme des Ballets Russes"", 1917: 26 pp., constituting THE MAY 1917 ""THÉATRE DU CHATELET"" SEPARATE PUBLICATION MAINLY DEVOTED TO JEAN COCTEAU'S GROUNDBREAKING BALLET ""PARADE"", INCLUDING APOLLINAIRE'S FAMOUS FOREWORD (COINING ""SURREALISM"") AND THE TWO FAMOUS COLOUR-ILLUSTRATIONS BY PICASSO +1919-20: 2 pp. introduction + 4 pp. of ""Les Ballets Russes a l'Opéra"", Jan-Feb. 1920 + Cover from the Comoedia Illustré special issue with costume designs for ""Tricorne"" by Picasso + the complete programme for the Ballets Russes 1919-1920: 32 pp., including drawings by Picasso, set and costume designs by Derain, and costume designs by Bakst + 1920: 2 pp. introduction + complete special issue for the ""Ballets Russes à l'Opéra"", May-June 1920: 10 pp., including cover design of costumes for ""L'Austice feminine"" and designs by Sert +1921: 2 pp. introduction + 20 pp. from Commoedia Illustré , including drawings of Strawinsky and Picasso and a 2-page spread of costume and scenic designs for ""Le Bouffon"" by Larionow. This is a stunning 380-page limited edition, compiled by the programme publishers of the Ballets Russes themselves, Maurice and Jacques de Brunoff. ‎

Reference : 53655

‎Very rare limited original edition of this splendid production by the Brunoff-brothers, which constitutes a collection of the most important, most influential, and most beatiful parts of the original Ballets Russes-publications, together with explanatory forewords By V. Svetloff, written and printed for this collection. ALL THE PROGRAMMES ARE THE ORIGINAL PRINTINGS, collected and bound here in this special compilation, which presents a selection of extracts from the magazines, together with the souvenir programmes (that were published as supplements), arranged in chronological order. This work vividly documents the famous ballet company that premiered such groundbreking productions as Igor Stravinsky's Firebird, Petrushka, Rite of Spring, Parade, etc.Among the most important of all the publications present, is the magnificent May 1917 ""Théatre du Chatelet"" separate publication (mainly devoted to the ballet ""Parade""), which constitutes one of the most important publications in the history of modern art. It is here, in his presentation-article to ""Parade"" that Apollinaire coins the term ""surrealism"" and thus lays the foundation for the seminal cultural movement that Bréton came to lead. Furthermore, the ballet ""Parade"" represents a historical collaboration between several of the leading artistic minds of the early twentieth century: Erik Satie, Jean Cocteau, Pablo Picasso, Léonide Massine, and Serge Diaghilev, and is especially famous, not only for its contents and its music, but also for its magnificent costumes designed by Picasso, the drawings of which are presented in the present publication for the first time - most famously the front cover for the ""Parade""-programme, which depicts the ""Costume de Chinois du ballet ""Parade""/ aquarelle de Picasso"", an etching with original, stunning pochoir-colouring (hand-painted by Picasso himself!).This one programme epitomizes the importance and infuence of the magnificent ""Comoedia Illustré"", of which all the most important contributions are collected here, in this one stunning volume. This amazing ballet monthly was published in Paris between 1908 and 1921. The special issues are generally speaking the most important ones, as they were often devoted to the annual Paris season of Serge Diaghilev's Balletes Russes and Ida Rubinstein's Galas Russes and document the amazing endeavours of these. These groundbreaking special issues (the May 1917 being merely an example), are geerally lavishly illustrated, usually in full colour, often heightened in gold, with costume and set designs and enriched with portraits of the leading singers and dancers in the ballets. The vast amount of colour illustrations throughout this collection includes contributions to the magnificent history of the Ballets Russes by such distinguished artists as Pablo Picasso and Léon Bakst. As the groundbreaking 1917 ballet ""Parade"" - the first of the modern ballets - originally presented for the first time in the present publication, marks Picasso's entry into the public and bourgeois institutions of ballet and theatre and presents Cubism on the stage for the first time, so Bakst's splendid costume and set designs depicted over numerous issues here for the first time presents the application of art nouveau design concepts to the stage. The present compilation of original publications presents an outright revolution in the history of art, theatre, and ballet on many levels.The introductory leaves to each year are almost all written by Svetloff (= Valerian Ivchenko), who was a famous Russian critic and the first biographer of Anna Pavlova.‎