Iconic Designs


Photograph

Léon Bakst (1866-1924). Sleeping Princess, Costume design for Princess Aurore, 1921. Watercolor and pencil. Howard D. Rothschild Collection. pf MS Thr 414.4 (23). Bequest, 1989.

 Photograph

Léon Bakst (1866-1924). Sleeping Princess, Costume design for Princess Aurore, 1921. Watercolor and pencil, highlighted with gold paint. Howard D. Rothschild Collection. pf MS Thr 414.4 (24). Bequest, 1989.

 Photograph

Léon Bakst (1866-1924). Sleeping Princess, Costume design for Good Fairy, 1921. Watercolor and pencil, highlighted with gold paint. Uncatalgued designs. Gift of Frederick R. Koch, 1984.

Costume designs by Léon Bakst for The Sleeping Princess

In 1920, Léon Bakst returned to Diaghilev’s circle after several years’ estrangement to create the costumes for a new and extravagant production of Petipa’s ballet The Sleeping Beauty, to be known as The Sleeping Princess.

The pink and white designs were for the title character, Aurora, in the third and fifth acts, respectively. This role was danced by Olga Spessivtseva, in alternation with several other dancers.

The blue design is designated “Good Fairy”; however, there is no character by this name in the cast list. But it is uniform in size, medium, signature, and date with a design for the Lilac Fairy (a character that is also masked), which was sold at auction in 1977, having been acquired directly from the artist. Therefore there seems not to be any reason to question that this design was intended for the Diaghilev production of The Sleeping Princess.