[Image from "Prelude à l'Après-Midi d'un faune"]

Adolf de Meyer

1912 · Platinum print · Photographs

In 1912 de Meyer made a remarkable series of photographs related to the Ballets Russes production L’après-midi d’un faune (Afternoon of a Faun). The avant-garde dance was choreographed by famed Russian performer Vaslav Nijinsky, set to a score by Claude Debussy, and inspired by a poem by Symbolist writer Stéphane Mallarmé. It follows a young faun distracted from his flute-playing by bathing nymphs who seduce and taunt him, leaving behind a scarf with which he allays his desire. When the ballet premiered in Paris on May 29, 1912, the overtly sexual climactic scene and unconventional choreography scandalized audiences. Nijinsky based the angular movements and frieze-like staging on Greek vase paintings, but Ballets Russes founder Sergei Diaghilev also likened them to Cubism. Thirty of de Meyer’s photographs of the ballet were published as collotypes (photomechanical ink prints) in a 1914 edition of one thousand luxurious handcrafted books. Although made at the same time as the other photographs in the series on the ballet, this image of the nymphs was not included in the 1914 publication.

Artist

Adolf de Meyer

Date

1912

Medium

Platinum print

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Gilman Collection, Purchase, Mrs. Walter Annenberg and The Annenberg Foundation Gift, 2005