Yuri Ivanovich Pimenov

Gekkoso Gallery, Tokyo
Sotheby's New York, Russian Art, 12 April 2011, lot 32

Pimenov had worked as a set designer as a young man and seen the mechanics of theatre life from the inside, from the intensive rehearsal schedule to the studios where the costumes were made. The present lot offers a glimpse of dressing-room preparations before a ballet performance at the Bolshoi. Two seamstresses assist a young dancer at the right; in the background more seamstresses attend to their tailoring, silhouetted against the light flooding in through the large windows. The intimacy of the scene is reinforced by the off-limits nature of the backstage area. The restrained palette, complex perspective and reflected images make it one of Pimenov’s sublest works, the forms outlined as though they were apparitions.