Musical scene, 1930

Pavel Tchelitchew  

Provenance:
the Estate of Derek Hill CBE (1916-2000)

Note:
Having fled Russia at the onset of the revolution in 1917, Tchelitchew studied at the Kiev Academy under the artist and designer Aleksandra Ekster (1882-1949). After moving to Paris in 1913, he established friendships with key figures in the contemporary avant-garde movement, such as Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) and Edith Sitwell (1887-1964).

Tchelitchew began his career as a theatre designer, and it was in this capacity that he worked with the ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev (1872-1929) and the choreographer George Balanchine (1904-1983). The present work is a design for the ballet 'Violin Concerto', set to Mozart's Violin Concerto no.5, and choreographed by Balanchine in 1942 for the Ballet of the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires. According to Donald Windham, who was a friend of Tchelitchew, this was one of final two productions that the artist worked on before focusing his energies more on his painting.