Nikolai Legat

Russian Ballet in Caricatures Nikolai Legat

In the early years of the twentieth century, two dancers at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburgh, the brothers Nikolai and Sergei Legat, produced a series of (mostly) affectionate caricatures of their fellow artists. The caricatures were initially printed individually, but later collected in folders containing varied numbers of the prints, the maximum number recorded being 94.

All 94 of these prints, taken from a rare surviving complete set, are reproduced here in full colour. They include some of the great names of the day, including Cecchetti, Drigo, Gerdt, Ivanov, Karsavina, Kyasht, the Legat brothers themselves, Pavlova, Petipa, Trefilova, and many others, forming a fascinating glimpse of life at the Mariinsky at that time.