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After Léon Bakst (1866-1924) Costume Design for Ida Rubinstein as Potiphar's Wife, 'La Légende de Joseph', c. 1914
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Details
Signed and dated ‘Bakst 1913’ (lower right) and inscribed ‘(Mme Ida Rubinstein)’ (upper right), both in the manner of the artist. Old typed collection label and a Bonhams label on the reverse.
Sizes:
Frame: 59.5 × 50 cm | 23.4 × 19.7 in
Artwork: 36 × 27 cm | 14.2 × 10.6 in
Potiphar’s wife stands in the costume Bakst designed for ‘La Légende de Joseph’, the ballet by Richard Strauss and Hofmannsthal that opened the 1914 Paris season of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes: a vast crimson skirt scattered with green-stemmed carnations over a gold underskirt, puffed red and white sleeves, ropes of pearls, a tall jewelled headdress with a plume, and the blue wig with gold side-plaits that Ida Rubinstein had worn in ‘Cléopâtre’. The sheet is inscribed with her name, and the typed label on the reverse, from the collection of the English ballet collector John Carr Doughty, records its exhibition at the CEMA ‘Exhibition of Ballet Designs’ at the Burlington Galleries, London, in 1953 and at ‘Hommage à Diaghilev’ in London in 1979.
The design is offered as after Léon Bakst: a version of the published Potiphar’s wife costume, in pencil, watercolour and gold paint, with the signature and date in the manner of the artist, as it was catalogued when Bonhams sold it from the Doughty collection. It is a handsome sheet with a documented English exhibition history and the only Ballets Russes design in this sale.
Provenance
John Carr Doughty collection, London (typed label on the reverse, no. 8a).
Bonhams, sale 32181, lot 133 (as ‘After Leon Bakst’).
Private Collection, Europe.
Exhibitions
London, Burlington Galleries, CEMA Exhibition of Ballet Designs, 1953 (according to the label).
London, Hommage à Diaghilev, 1979, no. 3 (according to the label).
Condition Report
Pencil, watercolour and gold paint on paper, laid down. The sheet is evenly toned with scattered foxing throughout, mostly in the margins; the colours strong; framed under glass in a burr-wood frame, not examined out of the frame. Please contact us to request a detailed Condition Report.
Shipping
Packed as size S (up to 60 × 50 cm) · 59.5 × 50 cm framed
- Transport and packing ()
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- Made-to-measure wooden crate (works over 20,000 €)
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€ (the low estimate to start)
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Insurance is optional. It follows the final hammer price, so with insurance the total moves with the bidding. The work is glazed, which the final quote may price differently. Indicative rates of our shipping partner MBE for packing and door-to-door transport; the final quote is confirmed after the sale. Import duties and taxes outside the EU are paid by the buyer.
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Authenticity & Buyer Information
The sale of this lot is final.
Qualified Attribution
Offered and sold as attributed. See our Conditions of Sale.
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What it costs
Bidding on this site, the buyer’s premium is 25%, Spanish IVA included. There is no VAT on the hammer price and no card fee.
| Starting price | Low estimate | High estimate | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hammer price | €1,000 | €1,200 | €1,800 |
| Buyer’s premium 25% (IVA included) | €250 | €300 | €450 |
| Total on auroraathena.com | €1,250 | €1,500 | €2,250 |
| Total through a bidding platform (30%) | €1,300 | €1,560 | €2,340 |
Through LiveAuctioneers, Invaluable, Drouot or Bidspirit the premium is 30%: the same hammer of €1,800 costs €2,340 there against €2,250 here. Shipping and insurance are quoted separately; the estimator below gives the figure for your country. Buyers outside the EU pay no Spanish tax on the lot; the destination’s import rules apply (United States: original paintings and drawings enter duty-free; United Kingdom: 5% import VAT on art). Card payments are accepted up to €10,000; larger amounts by bank transfer.
Questions about this lot
How does the estimate compare with the artist’s recent auction results?
The estimate of €1,200–€1,800 is our opinion of the range this work should reach; the starting price of €1,000 is the lowest bid we accept. We have not published comparable results for this lot; ask us before the sale and we will send the results we based the estimate on.
What will this lot cost in total?
Bidding on this site, the buyer’s premium is 25%, Spanish IVA included, and there is no VAT on the hammer price and no card fee: at the starting price of €1,000 the total is €1,250; at the low estimate of €1,200 the total is €1,500; at the high estimate of €1,800 the total is €2,250.
Through LiveAuctioneers, Invaluable, Drouot or Bidspirit the premium is 30%, so the same hammer of €1,800 costs €2,340 there. Shipping and insurance are quoted separately; the estimator on this page gives the figure for your country. Buyers outside the EU pay no Spanish tax on the lot; the destination’s import rules apply (United States: original paintings and drawings enter duty-free; United Kingdom: 5% import VAT on art). Card payments are accepted up to €10,000; larger amounts by bank transfer.
How is this lot catalogued?
As “After”, a qualified attribution: the lot is offered and sold as described under the Conditions of Sale. The estimate reflects that.
Can I see the condition report, more photographs or the work itself?
A condition report with ultraviolet photographs is prepared on request, normally within two working days; the condition summary on this page is examined in-house and is not a conservator’s report. Further photographs of any detail, the reverse or the frame are sent on request. The work can be examined in our Barcelona showroom by appointment before the sale, and you are welcome to send your own conservator or specialist.
How does bidding work, and can a maximum bid make me overpay?
You can leave a maximum bid before the sale (the sale is on Saturday, November 28th - 17:00 (CET)) or bid live in our online room. A maximum bid is executed by the auctioneer only as much as is needed to stay ahead of other bidders, in the sale’s increments, never above your maximum.
Where a reserve exists it never exceeds the low estimate; a lot without a reserve sells to the highest bid at or above the starting price of €1,000.
Is there a limit on how much I can bid?
Every account is approved for bidding as soon as the e-mail address is confirmed, with a limit of €5,000 per bid until the identity is verified. The limit applies everywhere: in the live room, on the lot page and to maximum bids. To bid without a limit, verify your identity in your account on this site: it takes about three minutes on a phone, is done once, and the limit is lifted automatically as soon as the check is complete. Please do it at least an hour before the sale.
Léon Bakst
Léon Bakst was born Lev Rosenberg in Grodno in 1866, studied at the Academy in St Petersburg and in Paris, and in the 1890s became, with Alexandre Benois and Sergei Diaghilev, one of the founders of the World of Art group and its magazine. A painter and portraitist, he found his true field in the theatre: from 1909 he designed for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in Paris the productions that changed European taste, ‘Cléopâtre’, ‘Schéhérazade’, ‘Le Carnaval’, ‘L’Après-midi d’un faune’, ‘Daphnis et Chloé’, ‘La Légende de Joseph’, with sets and costumes of a violence of colour and a sensuality that fashion, interiors and the applied arts of the 1910s and 1920s all took from him.
He was the company’s artistic director in its great years and worked as well for Ida Rubinstein’s own company and for Anna Pavlova, designing ‘Hélène de Sparte’, ‘La Pisanelle’ and ‘Phèdre’ for Rubinstein, his friend and muse. He settled in Paris, where he died in December 1924. His costume designs, among the most celebrated drawings of the twentieth century, are in the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Metropolitan Museum, the Wadsworth Atheneum and the National Gallery of Australia, and have been copied and reproduced since his own lifetime.
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