Male Nude Antique Imperial Russian Dancer Oleg Dunaeff Posing In Exile

Fine pair of antique snapshot style photos of Russian emigre, Oleg Dunaeff, a soloist with Ballet Russe and the Metropolitan Opera performing scenes from the ballet L'Après-midi d'un faune on a rock at the seaside circa late 1930s. He married Irene McDonald, 79, a former Broadway singer and dancer. Mounted in an antique style gilded frame.

The ballet L'Après-midi d'un faune was choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky for the Ballets Russes and first performed in the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris on 29 May 1912. Nijinsky danced the main part himself. As its score it used the Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune by Claude Debussy.

Both the music and the ballet were inspired by the poem L'Après-midi d'un faune by Stéphane Mallarmé. The costumes and sets were designed by the painter Léon Bakst.

The style of the ballet, in which a young faun meets several nymphs, flirts with them and chases them, was deliberately archaic. In the original scenography designed by Léon Bakst, the dancers were presented as part of a large tableau, a staging reminiscent of an ancient Greek vase painting.

They often moved across the stage in profile as if on a bas relief. The ballet was presented in bare feet and rejected classical formalism.

The work had an overtly erotic subtext beneath its façade of Greek antiquity, ending with a scene of graphic sexual desire. L'Après-midi d'un Faune is considered one of the first modern ballets and proved to be as controversial as Nijinsky's Jeux (1913) and Le Sacre du printemps (1913). Size of Largest Photo: 10.5 x 8 cm approx. Size of Frame: 22.5 x 18.5. Paintings, posters, engraving, antiques for your home and interior designers furniture, silverware, pottery, glassware, Sculptures, decorative antiques etc...

Uk and European royalty postcards. Art, fashion and interior design books. Please take a look my other items.

This item is in the category "Collectables\Photographic Images\Photographs". The seller is "theatolye" and is located in this country: GB. This item can be shipped worldwide.

• Unit of Sale: Set
• Antique: Yes
• Image Orientation: Portrait
• Material: Paper
• Original/Licensed Reprint: Licensed Reprint
• Framing: Framed
• Subject: Nudes
• Vintage: Yes
• Type: Photograph
• Format: Photograph
• Year of Production: 1920
• Image Colour: Black & White
• Theme: Art, Royalty, Gay, Male Nude, Nude, Ballet
• Style: Figurative Art
• Featured Person/Artist: Oleg Dunaeff
• Time Period Manufactured: 1900-1924
• Production Technique: Photograph
• Country/Region of Manufacture: Russian Federation
• Finish: Matte

---