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Medium: watercolour over pencil heightened with gold and silver paint on paper

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Dimensions: 66 by 48.2cm., 26 by 19 in.

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Provenance: M. Knoedler and Co., New York

Mary B. Havemeyer, New York

Sotheby's Auction, Russian Twentieth Century and Avant-garde Art, London, 6th April 1989, lot 691

Private Collection, France

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Exhibited: New York, M. Knoedler and Co., Recent Works by Bakst, 1922, no.9

Chicago, The Arts Club of Chicago, Exhibition of Paintings by Leon Bakst, 1923, no.5

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Notes: Echo Abandonné is an enlarged second version executed by Bakst for exhibition. It is based on an original, working costume design for Tamara Karsavina as Echo in the one act ballet Narcisse which was first performed by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes at Monte Carlo on 26th April 1911 with Vaslav Nijinsky as Narcisse.

This design was made specially for the exhibition at M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 6-16 December 1922 (number 9 in the catalogue). Unsold, it was then also exhibited at the Arts Club of Chicago, 12 March - 5th April 1923 (as number 5).

This 1922 design is illustrated in Leon Bakst and the Ballets Russes by Charles Spencer, London 1995, on page 101 (no.154), even though the caption gives the date 1911, the date of the original design.

The original 1911 design is illustrated in The Art of the Ballets Russes by Militsa Pozharskaya and Tatiana Volodina, London, 1990 on page 80. The only real difference between the two, apart from the size, is that the original design has the inscription Narcisse/Echo top left corner and the signature and date Bakst 1911 across the bottom of the pot lower right.