mon 02/12/2024

Photo Gallery: Ballet in Focus | reviews, news & interviews

Photo Gallery: Ballet in Focus

Photo Gallery: Ballet in Focus

Rarely seen archive photographs of key dancers from the start of the 20th century

Phyllis Bedells posing coyly for fashionable portraitist Alexander Bassano7 July, 1916 © NPG

A display of rarely seen photographs of key ballet dancers from the start of the 20th century goes on display at the National Portrait Gallery. The gallery holds the largest surviving archive of the once-fashionable Bassano Studio, London, including portraits of Anna Pavlova and the great classical dancers Adeline Genée (6), Phyllis Bedells (main) and Ninette de Valois (2), founder of the Royal Ballet.

These images are shown alongside a newly acquired portfolio from 1913 by E O Hoppé and Bert of Diaghilev's star performers from the Ballets Russes. With nearly 40 portraits, the exhibition will focus on the gap between the Romantic ballet of the 19th century and the arrival of Diaghilev's avant-garde Russian company, whose appearance in London in 1911 caused a sensation. The display will bring into focus an overlooked but important period of British dance and theatre history.

Click an image below to view gallery.

[bg|/ART/Fisun_Guner/Ballet_In_Focus_NPG]

  1. Adolph Bolm, 1911 by E O Hoppé © 2010 E O Hoppé Estate Collection/Curatorial Assistance Inc
  2. Dame Ninette de Valois, 25 August, 1920 by Bassano © National Portrait Gallery
  3. Tamara Karsavina, 1911 by E O Hoppé © 2010 E O Hoppé Estate Collection/Curatorial Assistance Inc
  4. Ruth St Denis, 6 May, 1922 by Bassano © National Portrait Gallery
  5. Roshanara (Olive Craddock), 1913 by Bassano © National Portrait Gallery
  6. Dame Adeline Genée, 1916 by Bassano © National Portrait Gallery
  7. Sir Anton Dolin, 1924 by Bassano © National Portrait Gallery
  8. Lillebil Ibsen (Sofie Parelius Krohn), 22 September, 1920 by Bassano © National Portrait Gallery
  9. Lydia Kyasht, 10 July, 1912 by Bassano © National Portrait Gallery
  10. Tamara Karsavina and Adolph Bolm, 1911 by E O Hoppé © 2010 E O Hoppé Estate Collection/Curatorial Assistance Inc

Add comment

The future of Arts Journalism

 

You can stop theartsdesk.com closing!

We urgently need financing to survive. Our fundraising drive has thus far raised £33,000 but we need to reach £100,000 or we will be forced to close. Please contribute here: https://gofund.me/c3f6033d

And if you can forward this information to anyone who might assist, we’d be grateful.

Subscribe to theartsdesk.com

Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.

To take a subscription now simply click here.

And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?

newsletter

Get a weekly digest of our critical highlights in your inbox each Thursday!

Simply enter your email address in the box below

View previous newsletters