The Invocation

The above 'Decoration' is one of a series of important decorative works painted over a period of a decade and more, which were inspired by the Diaghilev Ballet's appearances in London between 1911 and 1913 when Nijinsky was a member of the company. A memoir of the artist's niece records them as times of "feverish delight and wild enthusiasm". This work is closely related to The Invocation, also known as Le Sacre du Printemps (dated 1913). A version of this composition was sold with other works from the artist's estate on 4th October 1995. It was bought with the assistance of the NACF for the Walker Gallery, Rotherham. These versions exclude the upper third of the mythological landscape included in this version. Although the central group of figures is significantly different, the group of standing figures and the first kneeling figure on the left and the five male figures and two of the three kneeling figures on the right are substantially the same. Several figures in this composition are known in oil sketches and pencil drawings, many of which can be related to Diaghilev ballets. A pencil drawing heightened with body colour of the repeated male figure on the right was exhibited at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in their Diaghilev exhibition in 2004. This drawing of Nijinsky is also the basis of the central figure in another important Ethel Walker decoration known as The Coming of the Fawn.

We are grateful to Desmond King for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.