Tag Archives: 1920s

Russian Art Deco Mystery Costume Designs

I have here two costume design renderings, (below) in gouache, for a dance piece, that I bought on eBay absurdly cheap:

 

They were framed, and sealed, and between the paper, and other indications, I’d guess them somewhere from 1920-1940. There is no signature, notes or stamps. The left image is of a Russian Folk dancer, the right, is a folk dancer of another nationality (Italian? Spanish? Hungarian?). They are obviously by a Russian designer, but who, and from what show? I’m not interested in selling them, but I am interested in finding out who did them, or the production they are from. Any suggestions may be sent to me. Chances are that if you don’t understand why I say they are definitely by a Russian from 1920-1940, you won’t have the answer. However, you might be able to identify the nationality of the dancer’s dress on the right better than I can. So far two people have sent me ideas, one that the designs are by Alexandra Exter the other idea was Tatiana Puni, but I can’t confirm either of these. The closest designs I’ve found in a book are by Pavel Tchelitchew, but they are not that close in style. A guy from Yugoslavia thinks that the figure on the right represents a Hungarian, and I think that guess may be correct. ……Dec., 3, 2017