L'Oiseau de feu (The Firebird) with choreography by Mikhail Fokine, was premiered by the Diaghilev Ballets Russes at the Paris Opéra on 25 June 1910, with designs by Alexander Golovine. Leon Bakst revised some costumes for principal dancers including this for the Tsarevna which Tchernicheva first performed in 1915 and thereafter throughout the life of the Ballets Russes. Cyril Beaumont who commissioned this illustration for his illustrated monograph on Tchernicheva praised her ‘grace and charm’ in this role. It appears that in about 1915 Bakst redesigned the beautiful Tsarina’s costume to this old Russian silver and blue sarafan decorated with pearls and red beads and kokoshnik.
Read on
The drawing was executed and published as a hand-coloured plate in the monograph The Art of Lubov Tchernicheva which included a portrait by Glyn Philpot and eight full page hand-coloured illustrations two decorations and cover design by Vera Willoughby together with an appreciation by Cyril W. Beaumont, published by C. W. Beaumont, London, 1921.
