A unique collection of brilliant dancers Diaghilev troupe includes drawings, engravings, paintings by leading artists of the XX century, as well as photographs and autographs of celebrities

Cerzh Lifar ballet "Giselle» Source: nashagazeta. ch

Russian-speaking Swiss newspaper "Nasha Gazeta" reported the interesting news from Geneva : auction house Hôtel des Ventes produced another sensation for anyone interested in Russian history and culture. March 9-11 at the pre-auction exhibition Hôtel des Ventes presented more than 300 drawings, prints and paintings by leading artists of the twentieth century: Marc Chagall , Max Ernst, Juan Gris, Francis Picabia, Pablo Picasso, 3000 photos of scenes from the Russian ballet world and representatives of the beginning of the twentieth century, previously unknown drawings and manuscripts by Jean Cocteau. This is the legacy of the great dancer of the twentieth century Serge (Sergei) Lifar.

Serge Lifar with Sergei Diaghilev Source: nashagazeta.ch

In mid-March, the head of Bernard Piguet auction house puts up for sale a collection of the Countess Lillian Alefeld-Lorvig , the successor and close friend of Serge Lifar. Here is his comment: "This collection is an estimated value in excess of one million francs (€ 1 million, $ 1.5 million) includes not only evidence of the artistic life of the main events of the twentieth century, but personal items, which the dancer kept throughout his life." At this auction by collectors and fans will be able to buy not only drawings by Picasso, estimated more than 100,000 Swiss francs, and a signed applets, suitcase Lifar and his favorite teddy bear.

Sergey Lifar was born in 1905 in Kiev, Tarasovskaya street, in the family of an employee of the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry Michael Lifar and his wife Sophia Marchenko. Already in childhood he was lucky: Serge Lifar was attached to the dance Bronislava Nijinska - sister of the great Vaslav Nijinsky. In 1922 Nijinska emigrated to Paris where he collaborated with the famous "Russian Ballet" by Sergei Diaghilev. A year later, she invited into the company of his best pupils, among whom was Serge Lifar. In Paris, his teachers were the virtuoso Italian Enrico Cecchetti, and former coach Nikolai Legat Vaslav Nijinsky.

Very soon, Lifar was accepted into the troupe "Russian Ballet" and until 1929 was involved in virtually all of its productions . But in August 1929 Diaghilev died, and the company ceased to exist. Serge Lifar felt I was too young to take over the management company and continue to dance. At the request of Jacques Rouche, director of the Paris Opera, Lifar staged in her ballet "The Creatures of Prometheus" to the music of Bach, which premiered Lifar was a triumph as a choreographer and dancer. That evening Rouche appointed him prime minister and chief choreographer of "Grand Opera", which was the beginning of stunning 25-year career dancer. According to experts, he played the same role in the development of French ballet, as a Frenchman, Marius Petipa in the development of Russian ballet.

unpleasant page of life Lifar, like many actors of his generation of French culture, is associated with the period of occupation of France Nazi Germany. In 1939, despite the outbreak of war, Lifar was in Paris and continued to lead the theater, created his best performances, and, objectively, French ballet saved from death. In 1943 the premiere of one of the jewels Lifar - "Suite in white." The French resistance movement in London accused him of collaboration and sentenced to death. Lifar left the city and in 1944-1947 he headed the company of "The New Ballet of Monte Carlo." After the war, the French National Committee for "cleaning" reversed the charge, and choreographer triumphantly returned to his home theater, the permanent head of which he remained until 1958, when he was finally dismissed.

The sale will exhibited an unusual set of three thousand photographs signed by famous artists of the period, depicting Lifar in the prime of his career, or close to prominent persons of his time - Ingrid Bergman, Marc Chagall, Coco Chanel, Charlie Chaplin, Jean Cocteau, Giorgio de Chirico, Aristide Maillol , Francis Poulenc, George Marquis de Cuevas, Jacques Prévert, Picasso, Paul Valery, Marie-Laure de Noel ...

Serge Lifar and Coco Chanel Source: nashagazeta.ch

Serge Lifar and Sergei Diaghilev Source: nashagazeta.ch

Almost all of the Lifar collection of presented in the Hôtel des Ventes, one way or another connected with ballet and decorated with the signatures do not need any comments: Leon Bakst , Alexander Benois , Christian Berard, Georges Braque, Yves Brayer, Dmitry Bushen , Eugene Berman , Bernard Buffet, Marc Chagall, Jean Cocteau, Max Ernst, Natalie S. , Juan Gris, Aristide Maillol, Francis Picabia, Pablo Picasso, Fyodor Stravinsky , Pavel Tchelitchew ...

several watercolors of Natalia Goncharova and a wooden model designed for the ballet" Shota Rustaveli "and dated 1943 year.

Pablo Picasso donated more Lifar on his work. For example, August 29, 1962 Cubist artist dedicated to his "The Fall of Icarus" (estimate 60-80 thousand francs), and "Lifar as Icarus" (estimate of 80-120 thousand francs), both works were carried out for the ballet at the Paris Opera, in which Lifar sang the title role.

work of his friend and great admirer of Jean Cocteau's worthy of special attention. Lifar got them from the hands of Cocteau and Coco Chanel, with whom he made friends for life.

tireless collector, Serge Lifar was forced to be auctioned off much of his collection at auction in Monaco, Paris and London. The reasons for this decision, he wrote in a letter to the heirs in 1975: "Today I have only a modest pension from the Paris Opera, and therefore unable to maintain the collection. Patrons walked my attention, I have to say goodbye to this treasure trove of Russian culture, "let the will of" all the books and albums, so they became available to historians, the library ».

now part of the library Lifar ( 817 volumes) is stored in Kiev, in the arts department of the Public Library. Lesia Ukrainka. In Ukraine, it gave the gift of a friend of the choreographer Countess Lillan Alefeld, inherited all of his collections.

Countess Lillan Alefeld and Serge Lifar Source: nashagazeta.ch

grave of Serge Lifar and Countess Alefeld in Paris cemetery of St. Genevieve Source: nashagazeta.ch

auction held on 12 -15 March at the house of Hôtel des Ventes address: 51 rue Prévost-Martin, 1205 Geneva.

electronic catalog is available at www.hoteldesventes.ch .

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Photo Gallery of drawings and photographs from the collection of Lifar can be found at Telegraph: Prepared by Mary Estrova, AI

Source : nashagazeta.ch , artinvestment.ru