Edward John Burra

Edward Burra produced many costume designs for many of London’s biggest cultural venues in the late 1940s and 1950s, including the Royal Ballet, Sadler’s Wells and the Royal Opera House.

In 1948, Burra was commissioned to design the stage set for the Sadler’s Wells ballet Don Juan, choreographed by Frederick Ashton and which was later shown in the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden on the 25^th November that same year. The music was composed by Richard Strauss, and the story based on the legend of Don Juan written by the Austrian poet, Nicolaus Lenau. He later designed sets and costumes for Robert Helpmann’s wartime ballet The Miracle in the Gorbals.

These drawings were in line with the theatrical paintings that he produced, where figures often appeared as though they were performers on a stage or a set. He also frequently depicted movie stars, actresses and actors in his scenes. Many of these figures were inspired by the time that Burra spent in Paris and Harlem, New York. He had a great interest in jazz and immersed himself within the culture that surrounded it from the 1920s onwards.

Burra’s ballet and opera designs will be celebrated as some of the most significant artistic contributions to modern set and costume design. The V&A hold a significant group of these designs, which were once in the Arts Council Collection.