Study for Aleko's Horse
1953-56
In 1942, the Ballet Theater of New York hired Chagall to design the sets and costumes
for a new ballet based on Russian author Alexander Pushkin’s 1824 poem, The Gypsies. The poem and subsequent ballet tell the story of a young man named Aleko who runs away from his “civilized” life to live in a gypsy camp, where he falls in love with the gypsy girl Zemfira. When she is later unfaithful to him, Aleko kills her and her lover in a fit of jealous rage, and is banished from the camp. This work was a study for one of Chagall’s sets when the ballet was revived in 1953.
Oil on canvas
18 x 24 in. (45.7 x 61 cm)
Gift of Gladys and Sam Rubinstein
2014.26.9
Provenance: Sam and Gladys Rubinstein, Seattle