In 1909, Sergei Diaghilev founded the Ballets Russes, a touring
ballet company which performed throughout Europe and North and
South America. It is regarded today as arguably the most
influential ballet company of the twentieth century, with
Diaghilev serving as the company's revolutionary artistic
director, championed for encouraging collaborative work among
choreographers, composers, artists, designers, and dancers. Over
the years, Diaghilev partnered with many artistic virtuosos
including Igor Stravinsky, George Balanchine, Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró,
and Coco Chanel.
In 1926, surrealists Miró and Max Ernst, whose work
Diaghilev admired and acquired in Paris, were commissioned to
design the stage sets and costumes for Diaghilev's new Ballets
Russes production of Romeo and Juliet, to be performed in Monte
Carlo. Diaghilev's original plan for this production of Roméo et
Juliette was a true-to-text telling story by William Shakespeare,
for which he had engaged the young English composer Constant
Lambert, and Lambert's friend Christopher Wood for the costume and
set designs. Diaghilev soon changed his mind, however, and decided
to adapt the plot to follow the story of a ballet company
rehearsing Roméo et Juliette. To better suit his new production
ideas, Diaghilev recruited Miró and Ernst in Wood's stead. The
picture here represents a group of seven designs by Miró for this
production,
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