Slavic Theatrical Costume, Peasant Girl With Apples

Signed lower right with a brush A. Chiriaeff

“The painter is in Russia the plastic inspiration of the ballet or the lyric drama, it is he who decides the style, the overall pictorial lines, the tone of the decor, and even the spirit of the staging." Léon Bakst

Son of Russian emigrants, artist-decorator and painter, Alexis Chiriaeff made a career as a production designer at the Bolshoi Theater in Geneva. In 1945, he illustrated the tales of the Russian writer Nikolai Leskov, a contemporary of Leo Tolstoy. The artist married in Switzerland the ballerina Lyudmila Alexandrovna Otsup, daughter of the writer Sergei Gorny, whose real name was Alexander Otsup. The family emigrated to Canada in 1952 and settled in Montreal, where his wife founded the Grand Ballet Canadien. Chiriaeff continued his work as a set designer there and collaborated with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), where the company's ballet productions were staged. Chiriaeff always gets along with the ballet master, who, having submitted his choreographic ideas to him, allows the artist to give birth to the main decorative ideas. Chiriaeff considers the decor as a background which should give the atmosphere and tone of the work: the dressed characters are treated like the last brushstrokes of a painting. He also paints numerous landscapes inspired by the wild immensity of Canadian nature and organizes personal exhibitions. He now rests in the Russian cemetery of Rawdon, Quebec. Our sweet peasant girl in traditional costume, delicately gouache with flamboyant Slavic accents, evokes, like the art of her compatriot Léon Bakst, a magical, festive and folkloric universe beyond time.

Bibliography :  Robert G. Alexis Chiriaeff // Vie des Arts (Montreal). 1962–1963. No. 29. P. 56-57. Forget N. Chiriaeff: Dance so as not to die. Montreal: Québec America, 2006. Exhibition catalog, Opéra National de Paris, Bakst, From Ballets Russes to Haute Couture (November 22, 2016 – November 5, 2017) under the direction of Mathias Auclair, Sarah Barbedette and Stéphane Barsacq, Éditions Albin Michel in partnership with the National Library of France, 189.pp