Covers of ballet publications by celebrated artists
1. Joseph Cornell:
I’ve long loved this cover to “Dance Index” vol. IV no 10 (October 1945), because the photograph of Margot Fonteyn as Odile with the Siegfried of Robert Helpmann is so spectacular, both in its grand sweep of arabesque line from front arm to raised foot and in the textured multidirectionality shown by her rear arm, shoulders, neck, face, and eyes. I bought the issue in the 1980s because this may well have been the very first times an entire American magazine covered British ballet. I forget how much I paid; I notice that an issue originally cost 25 cents.
Have I ever until now noticed that this front cover was designed by the now renowned Joseph Cornell? The editor, Donald Windham, writes “COVER: Around a scene from Sadler <sic> Wells’ 1943 revival of The Swan Lake, Leslie Hurry’s original designs for this production have been arranged by Joseph Cornell.” And so Fonteyn becomes another of the legendary ballerinas whom Cornell made the centrepiece of one of his objets d’art: her contemporary Tamara Toumanova and her junior Allegra Kent were others, as were such Romantic ballerinas as Marie Taglioni.
2: Cecil Beaton
2. This souvenir programme for the New York debut season of the Sadler’s Wells Ballet at the Metropolitan Opera House is a trove of fascinating photographs and written material, all priceless in various ways, including the Felix Fonteyn photograph of Frederick Ashton and Margot Fonteyn I reproduced earlier today. (Ninette de Valois’s essay, “The Classical Ballet Today”, is a masterpiece of superfluous arrogance and failure to comprehend the dance world of the 1940s. She demonstrates her own command of her subject by speaking of “porte <sic> de bras”.)
But this cover is by none other than Cecil Beaton. It’s a collage of imagery that includes Anna Pavlova, Tamara Karsavina, and Vaslav Nijinsky, the ballroom pas de deux from Ashton’s “Cinderella”, the character Elihu in de Valois’s ballet “Job” (the bare-chested man in white tights, apparently danced by an elongated Alexis Rassine), and very possibly Alicia Markova.
3, 4, 5. Edward Gorey
3, 4, 5. Several covers of the young magazine “Ballet Review” between 1966 and 1979 were designed by Edward Gorey; I reproduce only three here. It’s legend that Gorey went whole seasons of New York City Ballet without missing a performance, but it’s less well known that he was well informed about many dance idioms.
I’m especially intrigued by the cover to vol. 4 no 1, “La Déesse Éclectique” (1971). The magazine’s founding editor, Arlene Croce, had Olympian qualities that earnt her the admiring nickname “La Déesse” among a number of New York dance devotees. Since “Ballet Review” was already covering many dance idioms other than ballet, it seems likely that Gorey in this fabulously multicultural image is paying his respects to Croce herself.
Friday 16 July
1: Joseph Cornell cover for “Dance Index”, showing Margot Fonteyn and Robert Helpmann in “Swan Lake” (“Le Lac des cygnes”)
2: Cover by Cecil Beaton for programme for the Sadler’s Wells Ballet 1949 season at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York.
3: Edward Gorey cover for “Ballet Review” vol. 1 no. 3, 1968. The issue and its sequel included an illustrated story of the ballet by Gorey.
4: Edward Gorey cover for “Ballet Review” vol. 4 no 1, 1971, “La Déesse Éclectique”. It may well be that Gorey in this image was referring to the “Balllet Review” editor, his friend and colleague Arlene Croce.
5: Edward Gorey cover for “Ballet Review” vol. 7 numbers 2 & 3. In this issue, the last to which Gorey contributed, editor Robert Cornfield invited a range of witty dance-goers to pretend they were a leading New York impresario with carte blanche to present the international season of their choice. Gorey’s wicked season is especially entertaining.