Drawing

Le Train bleu was choreographed by Bronislava Nijinska to a scenario developed by Jean Cocteau to a score by Darius Milhaud and first performed by Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes on 20 June 1924 at the Théâtre du Champs-Elysées, Paris. It famously had a front cloth by Alexander Schervashidze after Pablo Picasso’s Two Women Running along the Beach. The scenery (a beach with two bathing huts) was by Henri Laurens and the sporting costumes were designed by Gabrielle Chanel. It was first danced at the London Coliseum on 24 November 1924 and it was possibly during this season that Bissill saw the ballet and was inspired to make his illustrations of Le Train bleu. George Bissill (1896-1973) was a British miner and artist who initially attracted attention for his paintings of mines. He became friends with Arnold Haskell who it appears introduced him to the ballet. He made a number of drawings of the dancer Anton Dolin. The image shows Dolin as ‘the beautiful boy’, ‘Le Beau gosse’, performing acrobatics on the beach and it was seeing this that inspired Cocteau to create the ballet.