Homage to the Romantic Ballet
1941
Joseph Cornell
Artist, American, 1903 - 1972
East Building Upper Level, Gallery 415-B
Artwork overview
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Medium
box construction (glass, photograph, rhinestones, dried flower petals, tulle, gold glitter, blue ribbon and celadon green ball)
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Credit Line
Collection of Robert and Aimee Lehrman, Washington, D.C., in honor of Beth Calmes
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Dimensions
overall: 4.76 × 11.75 × 8.89 cm (1 7/8 × 4 5/8 × 3 1/2 in.)
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Accession Number
2023.124.8
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
(Castelli Feigen Corcoran, New York); private collection, Los Angeles; private collection, New York; (Vivian Horan Fine Art, New York); purchased 26 January 1999 by Robert Lehrman, Washington, DC; gift 2023 to NGA.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1973
Cornell in Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, 1973-1974, unnumbered checklist, repro.
1976
Joseph Cornell, Leo Castelli Gallery; Richard L. Feigen and Company; James Corcoran Gallery; New York, 1976, no. 15.
1982
Joseph Cornell and the Ballet, Leo Castelli Gallery; Richard L. Feigen and Company; James Corcoran Gallery; New York, 1982-1983, no. 22, repro.
1984
Joseph Cornell, Fundacion Juan March, Madrid, 1984, no. 50.
Bibliography
1974
Ashton, Dore. _ A Joseph Cornell Album_. New York, 1974: 29, repro, 235.
1977
Waldman, Diane. Joseph Cornell. New York, 1977: n.p. fig. 57, 118.
2002
Waldman, Diane. Joseph Cornell: Master of Dreams. New York, 2002: 60-61, repro, 150.
2011
Leppanen-Guerra, Analisa. Children's Stories and "Child-Time" in the Works of Joseph Cornell and the Transatlantic Avant-Garde. Surrey, UK, 2011: 10, 183-187, 192.
2013
Beckman, Mary Camille. "Homage to the Romantic Ballet: the Poetics of Joseph Cornell." Michigan Quarterly Review (2013): 3.
2018
Welch, Elizabeth. "From the Slipper of a Sylphide: A Box by Joseph Cornell" Panorama: Journal of the Association of Historians of American Art 4 no. 1 (Spring 2018): n.6.
Inscriptions
Left side of lid: Gold confetti from an actual ribbon / worn by T.T. in Casse-Noisette.
Bottom of lid: Dream fragments loosened by the breezes from the / floating form of the fairy, Carlotta Grisi. Gold / rain shed from the garments of the dark fairy, / Tamara Toumanova.
Right side of lid: Homage to the Romantic Ballet / Joseph Cornell 1941.