The City Square. Study for backdrop for the ballet Le Coq d'or (The Golden Cockerel)
Natalia Goncharova
Russian, 1881–1962
c. 1937
A gouache, watercolor, and pencil study for the ballet Le Coq d'or in which Natalia Goncharova invents a flattened, ornamental Russian townscape intended as a theatrical backdrop for a folk-tale spectacle.
You’re immediately struck by its jewel-bright palette and dense, embroidered surfaces—onion domes, patterned facades, and a long procession of tiny, costumed figures set in a shallow, stage-like space that reads more like a decorated panel than a lived city.
The work shows how Goncharova transformed Russian folk ornament and modernist flattening into scenographic invention, helping reshape theatrical design and assert a modern national aesthetic in early 20th-century art and ballet.
Medium
Gouache, watercolor, and pencil on board
Dimensions
18 3/8 x 24 1/2" (46.7 x 61.6 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest (by exchange)
Accession
305.1947
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
