Lot 120: f - ANTOON VAN DER WELIE, 1866-1956 ANNA PAVLOVA AS THE DYING SWAN

signed in Latin l.l. and dated 1938

oil on canvas

CATALOGUE NOTE

Anna Matveyevna Pavlova, 1881-1931, remains one of the most iconic figures of the Russian ballet and the role of the dying swan is probably the most ubiquitous in its history. When invited to perform at a Mariinsky Theatre charity gala in 1907, Pavlova asked Mikhail Fokine to choreograph a new piece for her. The result of their collaboration was an eight-minute solo set to Le cygne from Camille Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals. It proved to be an instant success and later became Pavlova's signature piece. Fokine's aim was to appeal not merely to the eye but to the emotions and the imagination: "to this end he gave Pavlova an almost unbroken series of bourrées, leaving her arms to express the futile efforts of the creature whose wing beats could no longer carry it clear of the lake's surface"

K.Money, Anna Pavlova: Her Life and Art, London: Collins, 1982 p 71

When Pavlova premiered the solo at New York's Metropolitan Opera, The New York Times review proclaimed it to be 'the most exquisite specimen of her art she has yet given to this public'

Idem, p 99

160 by 105.5cm., 63 by 41Ѕin.