Lot 48: NIKOLAI VLADIMIROVICH REMISOFF

NIKOLAI VLADIMIROVICH REMISOFF 1887-1979 SIX DESIGNS FOR THE MURALS OF CLUB PETROUSHKA Quantity: 6 each signed in Latin and dated 24 l.l.; each bearing a Petroushka logo on reverse and stamped Petroushka Theatre-Cabaret tempera on board each approximately 35 by 54.5cm., 14 by 21 1/2 in.

The collection of the actor Leonid Kinsky

In 1924 Nikolai Remisoff left his position as artistic designer in Nikita Balieff's cabaret-theatre Chauve Souris to open a Russian-themed nightclub in New York, Club Petroushka, together with Theodore Bauer. Waiters served a menu of blinis, borsht and caviar in billowing white-shirted costume, while gypsy entertainers performed against Remisoff's characteristically colourful backdrop of Russian tavern scenes. One typically humourous mural depicted a sign proclaiming 'Alcohol is not served here' above a clearly inebriated group of diners, a reference to the failure of the recent Prohibition bill. Partly thanks to Balieff, a mania gripped New York at the time for all themes Russian and Remisoff's fashionable club was apparently a huge success, regularly patronised by celebrities such as George and Ira Gershwin and Rudolph Valentino. Tragically the premises burnt down in a fire only a year later, making the present designs for the murals a unique memento of the enterprise.

In 1933 Remisoff proposed opening a second Club Petroushka in Hollywood on Sunset Boulevard, together with a restaurateur and group of actors including Akim Tamiroff and Leonid Kinsky. Their business plan is wonderfully revealing of their vision of the club:

"A Theatre of artistic miniatures...
of gay dazzling colors and artistic severity...
of gentle humor and biting satire...
of drama and comedy, pathos and bathos...
of classical music and low-down jazz...
A Theatre unique in form, concept and execution...

THE CABARET-THEATRE...
But how to define it-? For to define is to limit, and an enterprise such as this is without boundary or limitation... A theatrical potpourri... an artistic buffet.... In scope, as rich and varied as the arts which it embraces..."

Like his set designs for the Chauve Souris, Remisoff's murals are a riot of colour and energy and stunning examples of his artistic style, sometimes termed 'Russian Vogue', perhaps a reference to his numerous cover designs for Condé Nast publications. He held a one-man show in the Wildenstein Gallery in 1922, soon after arriving in America, and rapidly became perhaps the most fashionable Russian émigré artist in America, even selected by Elizabeth Arden to design her beauty salons in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Hollywood. Remisoff taught and designed sets and costumes in each of these cities, eventually settling in California where he was artistic director for over thirty films.

This rare set of six designs comes from the collection of Leonid Kinsky, an American actor famous for his role as Sasha in Casablanca and one of the proponents for the unrealised Hollywood branch of Club Petroushka.