Figurine
Can I see it?
Not on view at present
Where is “Figurine” now? Collection: Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Not on view at present. Checked September 25, 2026.
London, United Kingdom
It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the sculpture
This small figure represents Adolph Bolm as the Warrior Chief in Polovtsian Dances, Mikhail Fokine's ballet in Borodin's opera Prince Igor. An excerpt from the opera set in the Russian steppes was the sensation of the first Paris season organised by Diaghilev in 1909 with dancers from the Imperial Russian Ballet. Before Diaghilev's productions, European audiences couldn't have conceived of a ballet like this or a man dancing like Bolm. He leapt on stage to the pounding rhythms of Borodin's music and a chanting chorus, and Fokine's choreography astonished audiences who had never seen male dancers dancing in such an uninhibited way.
Read on
Frödman-Cluzel's bronze conveys the energetic style of the ballet and Bolm's physique, which conditioned Fokine's choreography. Bolm crashed his feet to the ground to emphasise the ferocious rhythms of the music, while the proud curve of the back captured the essence of the tribal warrior. The revolutionary Diaghilev Ballet re-asserted the infinite variety of style and expression inherent within ballet, and its validity as an expressive theatrical medium.
Victoria and Albert Museum
Details
- Accession number
- S.874-1981
What it shows
In the catalog
Sources
- Victoria and Albert Museum
- Image: Victoria and Albert Museum — © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
