Footnotes

Paul Scheurich's earliest models for the Meissen porcelain factory were inspired by characters from the ballet Le Carnaval, performed multiple times in Berlin between 1910 and 1912 by Sergei Diaghilev's legendary Ballets Russes. Diaghilev's troupe ignited a wave of cultural fascination across Europe in the early 1910s, collaborating with some of the most influential figures in music and modern art over the next two decades, including Ravel, Debussy, Strauss, Picasso, and Braque.

Le Carnaval was originally choreographed by Michel Fokin for a charity ball in Saint Petersburg in 1910, set to Robert Schumann's piano music of the same name. Its success prompted Diaghilev to take the Ballets Russes to Paris, with a stop in Berlin on 24 May 1910 marking their first performance in the city. Although that initial visit was brief, their return in January 1912 was met with widespread acclaim. On opening night, 8 January 1912, the Berliner Tagesblatt featured an interview with Diaghilev on its front page, followed by a glowing review the next day: 'Die Freunde und Kenner wahrer Tanzkunst hatten gestern einen genußreichen Abend. ...' [The friends and connoisseurs of the art of dance had yesterday a highly enjoyable evening ...].

Given his profound interest in theatre and music, it is highly probable that Scheurich attended one of the Ballets Russes' celebrated 1912 performances. That same year, he collaborated with the Berlin publishers Fritz Gurlitt to release a folio of illustrations entitled Pierrot, featuring Commedia dell'Arte figures in everyday scenes. These illustrations closely resemble the characters from Le Carnaval (Johannes Rafael,Paul Scheurich: Balletfiguren, in Keramos 148, 1995, pp. 59–60, fig. 5), suggesting that he created the porcelain models in the same year and no earlier.

Early sketches and photographs of the dancers reveal that Scheurich's porcelain figures are faithful interpretations of the ballet's characters, incorporating many of Léon Bakst's original costume designs. He presented the models to the Meissen factory at the end of 1912, and they were acquired for production by Max Adolf Pfeiffer in June 1913 for 2,500 Marks. Scheurich submitted his decoration proposals in January 1914, and the first completed figures were finalized the following month (Johannes Rafael, Paul Scheurich 1883-1945 Porzellane für die Meissener Manufaktur, Meissener Manuskripte, Sonderband VIII, 1995, p. 22).

Another complete set was in the collection of Prof. J. Rafael, sold in these rooms, 14 April 2022, lot 9.