Jean Target
Alexander Grant, Dans Mam'zelle Angot
c.1950

About the Item

This artwork titled "Alexander Grant, Dans Mam'zelle Angot" referring to the famous ballet dancer, Alexander Grant, c.1950 is a watercolor, pastel and crayon on brown paper by noted French artist Jean Target, 1910-1997 It is signed and titled at the lower right corner by the artist. The artwork size is 11.75 x 9 inches, framed is 20.75 x 17.5 inches. it is beautifully custom framed in a dark wood frame, with matting and gold color spacer. it is in excellent condition, the colors are fresh and bright. About the artist. Jean Target was born in France in 1910. From a very young age early on, he was impassioned by the two forms of art that would remain the focal point of his career for all his life: visual arts and performing arts. In the 30s and 40s, as a young man, Jean Target frequented the Parisian theaters and cabarets, just like his role model, the famous impressionist painter Toulouse Lautrec, did at the end of the 19th century. Jean became friends with many performers and captured many formal as well as candid depictions. He gained exclusive access and used this privilege to create art with unparalleled perspective as an insider to the seedy, dark, yet glamorous underworld of Parisian cabaret. He drew the dancers on-site, capturing the dancer’s movements in his immediately recognizable signature style. In the 40s and 50s, he continued his artistic career, gaining recognition among collectors in France and all over Europe. His work depicting the Parisian performing art scene captures the feeling and history of the the theater and golden age of cabaret in Paris. Jean Target continued to draw, paint and sculpt until his death in 1997. The work of Jean Target is held in collections and museums worldwide including the world renowned Victoria And Albert Museum in London. About the subject. Alexander Grant was born on February 22 1925 in Wellington, New Zealand, the son of hoteliers. He was one of two brothers who would become major names in the Royal Ballet: Garry Grant, 15 years younger than Alexander, later took over many of his parts. Alexander resolved to become a dancer when he was six. Inspired by the rare tours of Russians migrant to the islands, he studied ballet at Wellington College, and won a scholarship to the Sadler’s Wells Ballet School in 1944. Because it was wartime, the London company was short of men, and Grant was swiftly taken into the company itself. Two years later the former Diaghilev choreographer Léonide Massine came to London to stage Mam’zelle Angot, decorated by André Derain. Massine seized on Grant for the virtuosic central role of the amorous Barber, and it made the young dancer a star. Massine and Grant had much less success with a Scottish-themed follow-up, Donald of the Burthens, designed and composed by Scottish artists, with Grant as the kilted Donald threatened by Beryl Grey as the figure of Death. Above all Grant’s distinction as a classical dancer, combined with his mastery of character, enabled Ashton to develop what were usually subsidiary supporting roles – the bravura trick soloists – into key players in the main drama, often introducing a provocative sexual charge. As a young man Grant was lusted after by both sexes, as well as by Ashton himself. As the Pirate Chief in Daphnis and Chloe (1951), the dancer described his orders: “I used to have to rush on stage, pick Margot up with one hand and run off with her, and then ... swing her round and round, throw her on the floor and proceed to jump all over her.” The swooning fans who gathered at the stage door to catch a glimpse of him were astonished to find how short he was. In Sylvia (1952) he had to stand immobile through most of Act 1, resembling a naked stone statue of the love-god Eros; when he suddenly moved, it created a shock much enjoyed by the audience. Ashton then cast him as the sailor hero of a Madam Butterfly-like ballet, now lost. This was Madame Chrysanthème, with an Alan Rawsthorne score and a Nagasaki setting, in which Grant’s insouciance underscored the tragedy of the Japanese geisha whom he betrayed. In 1957 Grant was closely involved with the gestation of Ashton’s ballet Ondine, as the composer, Hans Werner Henze, stayed in his Battersea house while Ashton and Grant worked on what would be a very radical rewriting of the classical ballet idea. Grant himself danced the Mediterranean Sea god Tirrenio, in a stormy whirl of green seaweed-like costume ravishingly designed by Lila de Nobili. His superb incarnation of the puppet Petrushka and his eccentric Dr Coppelius in Coppelia laid the foundation for the two most famous character roles Ashton then created for him: as the capering halfwit Alain in La Fille mal gardée (1960), and Bottom the Weaver in The Dream (1964). In the first, sporting top knotted hair, he turned gawky cartwheels and conveyed a vain hope of love, finding solace in his red umbrella when spurned. In the second he turned a few short minutes, as Bottom wears a donkey’s head and capers about in pointed shoes, into a cameo of great pathos as well as comedy. When Ashton died he bequeathed the ownership of La Fille mal gardée to Grant, and its popularity kept him busy staging it globally, from the Bolshoi Ballet to the National Ballet of Canada, where he was artistic director from 1976 to 1983. Grant continued to perform character roles created for him by Ashton, requiring less active dancing but no less powerful style. He was the blustering William Meath Baker in Enigma Variations (1968) and the dejected husband Yslaev in A Month in the Country (1976), opposite Lynn Seymour. Arguably, the frequency and power with which “older man” roles recurred in British choreography by Ashton and his successor Kenneth MacMillan could be traced to the conviction and stage presence brought to bear by Grant. He was a keen collaborator on Ashton’s 1971 film Tales of Beatrix Potter, in which he performed Pigling Bland, repeating his feat from The Dream by dancing on point while wearing an enormous animal head. The following year, Grant became director of the Royal Ballet’s outreach wing, Ballet For All, and was asked to take over leadership of the National Ballet of Canada four years later. There he was sometimes accused of overloading the repertoire with Ashton ballets, but by the time he left in 1983 the Canadian Ballet also had a wide international modern ballet repertoire that included work by Kenneth MacMillan, Maurice Béjart, Jerome Robbins and rising home-grown talent such as the later NBC director James Kudelka. On his return to Britain, Grant was an extremely popular guest, in 1984 dancing the Dago in Ashton’s evergreen early hit Façade at the choreographer’s 80th birthday gala at Covent Garden. Grant also had character roles with London Festival Ballet, such as Dr Drosselmeyer in The Nutcracker and Madge the Witch in La Sylphide. During the years they worked together, Ashton made numerous roles for Grant. Among them are the following. 1946. Les Sirènes, music by Lord Berners. Role: "the boy who jumps through a hoop." 1946, The Fairy Queen, masque produced by Ashton and Malcolm Baker-Smith, music by Henry Purcell, adapted by Constant Lambert. Role: a Savage. 1948. Scènes de Ballet, music by Igor Stravinsky. Role: principal dancer. 1948. Cinderella, music by Sergei Prokofiev. Role: The Jester. 1951. Daphnis and Chloë, music by Maurice Ravel. Role: Bryaxis, a pirate chief. 1952. Sylvia, music by Léo Delibes. Role: Eros, god of love. 1952. Le Lac des Cygnes (The Swan Lake), music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikoveky. Role: Neapolitan Dance, with Julia Farron. 1953. Homage to the Queen, music by Malcolm Arnold. Role: Spirit of Fire. 1954. Trepak, from Casse Noisette (The Nutcracker) (act 2), music by Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Role: Russian dancer, pas de trois with April Olrich and Michael Boulton. 1955. Variations on a Theme by Purcell, music by Benjamin Britten. Role: principal dancer. 1955. Madame Chrysanthème, music by Alan Rawsthorne. Role: Pierre, a French sailor. 1956. Birthday Offering, music by Alexander Glazunov, arranged by Robert Irving. Role: principal dancer. 1958. Ondine, music by Hans Werner Henze. Role: Tirrenio, Lord of the Mediterranean Sea. 1960. La Flle Mal Gardée, music by Ferdinand Hérold, arranged and orchestrated by John Lanchbery. Role: Alain, son of Thomas, a prosperous vineyard owner. 1961. Persephone, libretto by André Gide, music by Igor Stravinsky. Role: Mercury. 1964. The Dream, music by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, arranged by John Lanchbery. Role: Bottom the Weaver. 1968. Jazz Calendar, music by Richard Rodney Bennett. Role: leader of Thursday ensemble. 1968. Enigma Variations (My Friends Pictured Within), music by Sir Edward Elgar. Role: William Meath Baker, "country squire, gentleman, and scholar," builder and real estate developer. 1971. Tales of Beatrix Potter (film), music by John Lanchbery, based on themes by Ludwig Minkus, Jacques Offenbach, Arthur Sullivan, and others. Roles: Peter Rabbit and Pigling Bland. 1976. A Month in the Country, music by Frédéric Chopin, arranged by John Lanchbery. Role: Yslaev, husband of Natalia Petrovna. Grant also created roles in other original productions mounted by the Sadler's Wells Ballet. Among them are the following. 1946, Khadra, choreography by Cela Franca, music by Jean Sibelius. Role: Ben Oni. 1948. The Clock Symphony, choreography by Léonide Massine, music by Franz Joseph Haydn. Role: The Clockmaker. 1950. Don Quixote, choreography by Ninette de Valois, music by Roberto Gerhard. Role: Sancho Panza. 1950. Ballabile, choreography by Roland Petit, music by Alexis Emmanuel Chabrier. Role: fisherman in "Sunday on the River." 1951, Donald of the Burthens, choreography by Léonide Massine, music by Ian Whyte. Role: Donald, a Scottish firewood carrier. 1952. Bonne-Bouche: A Cautionary Tale, choreography by John Cranko, music by Arthur Oldham. Role: The Black King. 1953. Veneziana, choreography by Andrée Howard, music by Gaetano Donizetti. Role: a lover. 1961. Jabez and the Devil, choreography by Alfred Rodrigues, music by Arnold Cooke. Role: The Devil.

Creator:

Jean Target (1910 - 1997)

Creation Year:

c.1950

Dimensions:

Height: 20.75 in (52.71 cm)Width: 17.5 in (44.45 cm)Depth: 1 in (2.54 cm)

Medium:

Watercolor

Movement & Style:

Realist

Period:

Mid-20th Century