Ballet in Focus

BALLET IN FOCUS is a display of 40 rarely seen photographs of key 20th Century ballet dancers from the English Romantic ballet and the Ballet Russes founded by Sergei Diaghilev which premiered the works by choreographers Marius Petipa  and Mikhail Fokaine and revolutionary new works by Bronislava Nijinksky, Léonide Massine, Vaslav Nijinsky and George Balanchine.

The free display includes 30 photographs from the Victorian London photographic studio of Bassano Ltd and the newly acquired portfolio of sepia photogravures by E.O.Hoppé published by the Fine Art Society in 1913, Studies from the Russian Ballet by E.O.Hoppé and Bert, featuring classic images of Diaghilev's stars.

Among the collection of photographs held by the National Portrait Gallery is the archive of the fashionable photographic studio Bassano Ltd, which comprises 40,000 whole-plate and half-plate negatives. Bassano was one of a number of studios frequented by theatre people and among its extensive clientele were many popular dancers

The photographs run in conjunction with the exhibition “Hoppé Portraits: Society, “Studio and Street” shown at the Wolfson Gallery 10 March - 19 June 2011 and concurrently with the “Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballets Russes” 1909-1929 at the V& A, 25 September 2010 – 9 January 2011.

Images © National Portrait Gallery, London.

Display dates: 14 December 2010 - 24 July 2011.