Alice Nikitina in the role of Flora, 1925

Alice Nikitina in the role of Flora,  from the Dukelsky/Braque production of the ballet Zephyr & Flore at the Ballets Russes, 1925

The present works are Claude-Lévy’s Commedia dell’Arte figures inspired by the Stravinsky/Picasso Ballet Pulcinella, produced by Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in 1920, with music after Pergolesi and choreography by Léonid Massine. The neo-classical idiom of the piece jibed perfectly with the tenets of the Purist Movement, with its formal clarity, easy accessibility and refreshing immediacy. The figure of Flora was inspired by the ballet Flore et Zéphyr, a collaboration between Braque and the composer Dukelsky (later known in America as Vernon Duke.)

Claude-Lévy was a star talent in Primavera’s stable, an atelier established by the department store Printemps. It engaged the best artists of the day to create a line of luxurious decorative objects for wealthy patrons. Realized in extremely limited quantities, works produced by Primavera number among the finest and most sumptuous productions of the Art Déco period.

Featured at the Primavera Pavilion, Claude-Lévy won a Grand Prix at the landmark Exposition International des Arts Décoratifs of 1925. Her vitrine of ceramics of decorated white enamel was also favorably noticed at the Salon d’Automne of 1929. At the Salon des Artistes Indépendants and at the Salon des Tuileries, she exhibited her paintings of Modernist inspiration, one of which, executed in 1926, was acquired by the French State.