Russisches Ballet I (from the portfolio "Die Brucke VII")

Max Pechstein

"Russisches Ballet 1" was included as Plate I in the Portfolio: Die Brücke VII (1912). It was originally done for a proposed portfolio titled "Russian Ballet" which did not happen, the only image was this etching, number one. This issue of Die Brucke was devoted to Pechstein's work and was not issued to "passive" members.

Reinhold Heller comments about this image on page 214 of his 1998 book "Brucke - German Expressionist Prints fro the Granvil and Marcia Specks Collection":

"After attending performances of Diaghilev's "Ballets Russes" in 1912, Pechstein created a series of drawings, which he then translated into a suite of seven etchings, inspired by Rimsky-Korsakov's 'Tsar Sultan'.

The sketches focus mostly on the violent battle which ensued when the Sultan returned home and found his wives amorously involved with other suitors. Rather than depicting the violence of performed battle, however, the etchings illustrate the choreography of erotic scenes, as couple entwine in sexual embraces with the exotic setting of a harem room."