July 11, 2024

Crafting the Ballets Russes: The Robert Owen Lehman Collection at The Morgan Library & Museum, June 28 – September 22, 2024

“The Morgan Library & Museum is pleased to present Crafting the Ballets Russes: The Robert Owen Lehman Collection, on view June 28 through September 22, 2024. The Robert Owen Lehman Collection, which has been on deposit at the Morgan for half a century, is the finest private collection of autograph manuscripts of Western music in the world. Among its many splendid works are deep holdings of early twentieth-century ballet materials, which will be shown together for the first time in this exhibition. 

Crafting the Ballets Russes highlights the rise of women in leading creative roles in the creation of these seminal ballets, including the choreographer Bronislava Nijinska and the dancer/producer Ida Rubinstein. Organized around a series of ballets, the exhibition features sketches, drafts, and choreographic notations to show how composers, choreographers, and designers together created works of astonishing originality and lasting influence. On view are over 100 objects including rare music and dance manuscripts, photographs, and costume designs by artists Léon Bakst, Alexandre Benois, and Natalia Goncharova.” — The Morgan Library & Museum

Léon Bakst (1866–1924), “Firebird and the Prince (Tsarevitch),” poster design for Firebird, 1915. Harvard Theatre Collection, Houghton Library, Howard D. Rothschild Collection.
Léon Bakst (1866–1924). Set design for bedroom scene for Schéhérazade, [1910]. Gouache on paper. Boris Stavrovski Collection, New York. Photography by Janny Chiu
Alexandre Benois (1870–1960). Set design for the “Butter Week Fair” for Petrouchka, scene 1, 1911.
Graphite, tempera, and watercolor on paper. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT. The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund, 1933.402. Photography by Allen Phillips. © 2024. Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
Dover Street Studios (London, active ca. 1906–12). Vaslav Nijinsky as Petrouchka, [1911], no. 2054. Library of Congress, Ida Rubinstein Collection
Alexandre Benois (1870–1960). Costume design for a moujik (peasant) in Petrouchka, n.d. Gouache and black ink with graphite on paper. The Joseph F. McCrindle Collection, The Morgan Library & Museum, 2009.23. Photography by Steven H. Crossot. © 2024 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
Léon Bakst (1866–1924). Costume design for a nymph in The Afternoon of a Faun (L’Après-midi d’un Faune), 1912. Watercolor, pencil, and gold paint on paper. Harvard Theatre Collection, Houghton Library, Stravinsky-Diaghilev Foundation Collection; pfMS Thr 495 (261).
Vaslav Nijinsky (1890–1950). The Afternoon of a Faun (L’Après-midi d’un Faune). Choreographic notation, ca. 1913–15. Library of Congress, Bronislava Nijinska Collection
Natalia Goncharova (1881–1962). Curtain design for Les Noces, 1915. Opaque watercolor over graphite on paper. Philadelphia Museum of Art: Gift of Christian Brinton, 1941, 1941-79-96. © 2024 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / UPRAVIS, Moscow
Program for Les Ballets de Madame Ida Rubinstein. Académie Nationale de Musique et de Danse, May 1929. Library of Congress, Ida Rubinstein Collection

“We are pleased to celebrate our centennial year with a presentation from the Robert Owen Lehman Collection, one of our most significant and cherished holdings at the Morgan,” said Colin B. Bailey, the Katharine J. Rayner Director of the Morgan Library & Museum. “We are immensely grateful to have the collection on deposit, where it can be shared with scholars, students, and visitors alike. This exhibition, combining music manuscripts with loans relating to choreography and design, brings some of the most pioneering and enduring early twentieth-century classical music to life.”

Crafting the Ballets Russes: The Robert Owen Lehman Collection is organized by Robinson McClellan, Associate Curator of Music Manuscripts and Printed Music.

Images courtesy The Morgan Library & Museum.