Russian Folk Tales

Natalia Goncharova’s backcloth design for the finalé of Michel Fokine’s ballet ‘The Firebird’, for the Ballets Russes, 1926. Image from the V&A Museum.I have always loved Moscow’s fanciful Saint Basil’s Cathedral for its colourful and plump onion domes and fairytale colours. So when I stumbled across this drawing of a set for the Ballet Russes, I was immediately enchanted, both by the subject matter and the warm colour palette, already a favourite of mine.

Costume design for a peasant woman, in ‘The Golden Cockerel’. Image from National Gallery of Australia.

A multitude of domes and minarets rise out of this city, the backcloth for the finalé of Michel Fokine’s ballet The Firebird, designed and illustrated by Natalia Goncharova, for the revival in 1926 (the ballet premiered in 1910). The ballet is based upon folk tales of the magical firebird that is both a blessing and a curse to its captor, set in the magical realm of Kashchei the Immortal.

Goncharova (1881–1962) was a Russian avant-garde artist, costume- and set-designer, illustrator, and writer. She was initially inspired by Russian folk art and icon painting, and later by Futurism. Experimenting with Fauvism and Cubism, Goncharova and her husband went Costume for a peasant woman, in ‘The Golden Cockerel’. Image from National Gallery of Australia.on to develop Rayonism (named after the rays of light represented in their paintings), an artistic movement hugely influential on the Russian school of modern art.

As early as 1915 she was designing ballet costumes and sets in Geneva, and in 1921 she was living in Paris. There she began designing stage sets and costumes of Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes, including The Wedding(1923), The Firebird (1926) and The Golden Cockerel (1937).