311 - PICASSO/DIAGHILEV. This historic photograph captures a defining moment in the history of dance and modern art: the opening of the major retrospective exhibition dedicated to Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs (Palais du Louvre, Pavillon de Marsan) in Paris, which took place from March to June 1939. Organized ten years after Sergei Diaghilev’s death (in 1929), this memorable exhibition was initiated and orchestrated by the famous dancer and choreographer Serge Lifar. It brought together the cream of Paris’s artistic avant-garde and high society of the time (including Jean Cocteau, Misia Sert, and members of the aristocracy and the arts community who supported the troupe) just before the outbreak of World War II. The group poses in front of the immense stage curtain created for the ballet *Le Train Bleu* (1924), one of the most famous collaborations by Diaghilev’s troupe. This giant curtain is a large-scale reproduction of Pablo Picasso’s work, *Two Women Running on the Beach* (*La Course*). It is the largest work related to Picasso’s stage design that survives today. Photograph of dignitaries in attendance at the opening of the “Serge de Diaghilev” exhibition in 1939 at the Louvre. Among those pictured are: Serge Lifar (standing in the center right—the man in a dark coat facing the camera, hat in hand—he was the curator of this exhibition and the principal dancer/choreographer of the Paris Opera). Boris Kochno, writer, librettist, and close collaborator of Diaghilev, is pictured toward the left near Jacques Rouché (director of the Opera). Misia Sert: The famous muse and patron of the Parisian avant-garde artists as well as the Ballets Russes, often seen alongside Lifar at these tribute events. Count Étienne de Beaumont: A major patron of the arts, founder of the “Soirées de Paris,” and a key figure in the artistic high society of the interwar period, standing in front of the stage curtain—a monumental canvas by Picasso created for *Le Train Bleu* 1924 for a Russian ballet by Serge Diaghilev. 18 x 24 cm. Stamp of the Serge Lifar Collection on the back.