The celebrated Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova (1882-1931) danced
in London with Sergei Diaghilev's company for the first time in
the summer of 1910. She caused a sensation with her Dance
Bacchanal from Pepita's ballet The Seasons. The editor of the
Illustrated London News commissioned Lavery to paint a head and
shoulders sketch of the dancer, with which the paper advertised
her second season at The Palace Theatre the following April.
Lavery agreed, but on condition that he be given 'a reasonable
number of sittings and some kind of undertaking that
appointments would be kept'(Lavery 1940, p.171). During her
three-month stay in London, Pavlova posed for Lavery on a
regular basis, as a result of which he produced two full-length
portraits of Anna Pavlova as a Bacchante, the liveliest version
of which is in Glasgow Art Gallery. Sometimes known as The Red
Scarf, this work is painted with tremendous freedom in a
profusion of artificial pinks, greens and pale blues which
capture the colour and energy of the dance. P