Edward Burra
Large Print Labels
Room 17
Room 17 (Clockwise from left)
Costume design for Carnival sequence
in 'Don Juan' (Ray Powell) 1948
Watercolour on paper
James L Gordon Collection
In 1948 Burra received a commission from the
choreographer Frederick Ashton to design the
décor and costumes for the ballet 'Don Juan' at
Covent Garden. His vibrant striped costumes and
beak-like masks for the Masquers in the carnival
sequence were clearly inspired by Venetian
'Commedia dell' Arte' characters. Their beak-like
masks gave them a sinister presence, which
recalled the macabre paintings Burra had created
earlier in the 1940s such as 'Birdmen and Pots', on
show in Room 14.
Design for a backcloth for the ballet
'A Day in a Southern Port (Rio Grande)' 1931
Watercolour on paper
James L Gordon Collection
In 1931 Burra designed the sets for the ballet 'Rio
Grande: A Day in a Southern Port' for the
Camargo Society. The society had been founded
by the Russian ballerina Lydia Lopokova and her
husband the British economist Maynard Keynes to
further the interests of the English ballet. The
choreography was by Frederick Ashton with jazzinfluenced music composed by Constant Lambert,
based on a poem by Sacheverell Sitwell. Burra
created a dockside scene of sailors and tarts,
inspired by the atmosphere of Toulon in Southern
France. The backcloth design was based on the
dolphin fountain at Raymond's Bar in Toulon.
Unrealised set design for a ballet
sequence from 'Aladdin' 1933
Watercolour on paper
James L Gordon Collection
In 1933 Burra worked with Frederick Ashton for
the impresarios Julian Wylie and James Tate on
designs for the pantomime Aladdin at the Empire
in Leeds. This heady oriental set, with its
Chinoiserie details and enormous red poppies,
was for a dance sequence based on dreams
inspired by opium. It relates to other images of
shady opium dens that he painted at this time. It
was never performed but Ashton described Burra's
designs as having a 'magical mix of fact and
fantasy.'
Backcloth design for Simply Heavenly
– Scene in Harlem 1957
Watercolour on paper
James L Gordon Collection
Burra's last set design was for a musical comedy
set in Harlem called 'Simply Heavenly'. It was
based on a play by the Harlem Renaissance poet
Langston Hughes, and opened at the Adelphi
Theatre in London in May 1958. Burra was an
ideal choice for designer as he knew Harlem well,
having stayed there in the early 1930s and
produced memorable depictions of its street life
and nightlife.
Set design for Act 4 of Carmen
(outside the Bull Ring) 1947
Watercolour on paper
James L Gordon Collection
'Carmen' was one of the first operas to be staged
at the Royal Opera House after the Second World
War. Burra's designs drew on his first-hand
experience of travelling in Spain in the 1930s,
which had inspired paintings of bullfights and
flamenco dancers. His set designs included
architectural backdrops loosely based on the
exterior of the Moorish bullring in Granada and
street scenes in Seville.
Front Cloth for Don Quixote 1950
Watercolour on paper
James L Gordon Collection
Burra's front cloth for 'Don Quixote' features the
protagonist heading out into the Spanish Plains,
with Sancho Panza behind. The choreographer
Ninette de Valois recalled: 'There stands out
clearly a special memory: the magic front-cloth for
'Don Quixote'. Rarely does there appear such
force and spiritual strength in a stage set painting.
Every line conveying purpose with a defiance that
is highlighted; a fate framed in ennobling colours –
whatever the outcome. We do not get such cloths
today in the theatre.'
Costume design for Frasquita and Mercedes in
'Carmen' Acts 1 and 2 (Audrey Bowman and
Constance Shacklock) 1947
Watercolour on paper
James L Gordon Collection
The choreographer Frederick Ashton observed: "A
close examination of Burra's costume designs
offers – apart from the purely aesthetic pleasure in
the strength and beauty of the draughtsmanship
and the perfect control of watercolour – a question.
Is it possible for a dancer to approximate to such
statements? Each sketch is the creation of a real
person; a beggar, a bandit, a street seller, the
gypsies of 'Carmen' and 'Don Quixote', the tarts
and the rough boys from 'Miracle in the Gorbals'.
Each is a human being – solidly and disturbingly
alive."
Set model by Edward Burra for the ballet
'Miracle in the Gorbals', Sadler's Wells Ballet at
the Princes Theatre 1944
Card, wood and watercolour
V&A Museum, Theatre Collections
Burra's set design for 'Miracle in the Gorbals'
evoked the grim atmosphere of the closely packed
Gorbals tenements and industrial dockyards. This
set model conveys Burra's attention for incidental
detail: the dark stairwells, the fish shop frontage,
and washing hanging from balconies. Ninette de
Valois later recalled: 'Even the strange lights of a
Glasgow winter, fighting their way through the grey
gloom, were not forgotten. They were noted by the
artist and went into the corners of 'the Gorbals'
stage set, to emphasize moments of exhilaration
or despondency, and eventually to the French how
very 'English' we were…'
Front Cloth for 'Miracle in the Gorbals'
(hanging above set model) 1944
Watercolour on paper
James L Gordon Collection
Costume design for the inhabitants of the
Gorbals (Douglas Stuart, Eric Hyrst, Anthony
Burke, Henry Danton, Philip Chatfield, Franklyn
White) 1944
Watercolour on paper
James L Gordon Collection
Burra's ability to present ordinary working-class
people with individuality and dignity made him an
obvious choice to design the sets and costumes
for Robert Helpmann's ballet 'Miracle in the
Gorbals' during the Second World War. The ballet
had a score by Arthur Bliss, and was based on a
story by Michael Benthall. It was a loose Christian
allegory based in the Glasgow slums: a young girl
who has committed suicide is brought back to life
by a Christ-like stranger, who is subsequently
murdered by an angry mob that has been incited
to violence by an evil Minister.
Harlem Theatre 1933
Watercolour on paper
Private collection, courtesy
the Mayor Gallery, London
Striptease 1934
Watercolour and gouache on paper
Frank Cohen Collection
Burra loved the spectacle of performance, and
was just as interested in depicting the audience
and their reactions as the action on stage. This is
an image all about voyeurism and spectatorship.
Eyes glow in the dark, and even the mask above
the proscenium arch seems to be leering at the
semi-nude dancer. The scene was based upon the
Apollo Theatre in Harlem, which featured a racy
review called 'Paris in Harlem' about which Burra
wrote to a friend: 'it must be seen
to be believed.'
Mae West 1934–5
Watercolour on paper
Private collection, courtesy Lefevre Fine Art
Burra was an avid cinema-goer and his diaries in
the 1920s and 1930s often record several trips to
the cinema in a single week, ranging from
Hollywood extravaganzas to less mainstream
German and French films. He avidly read
'Photoplay', one of the first celebrity magazines,
and collected postcards of the film stars he
particularly admired, in particular Mae West. This
painting was inspired by her camp performance in
the 1934 film 'Belle of the Nineties'.
Top Left
Sir Gerald du Maurier, illustration for
'The ABC of the Theatre' 1932
Ink on paper
National Portrait Gallery, purchased 1996
This drawing shows the actor Sir Gerald du
Maurier (1873–1934) and in 'The ABC of the
Theatre' it was accompanied by the line: 'D is du
Maurier – beau comme la prose – plus il change
son role, plus il est la meme chose' (handsome
like the prose, the more he changes his role, the
more he is the same thing)
Bottom Left
Hannen Swaffer, illustration for
'The ABC of the Theatre' 1932
Ink on paper
Rye Art Gallery
In 1932 Burra was commissioned to illustrate the
'ABC of the Theatre', a volume of comic verse by
the poet Humbert Wolfe. His portraits follow
conventions of caricature, with the protagonists
depicted with overlarge heads and small bodies,
but surrounded by incidental details closely
informed by Burra's watercolours of cafés, bars
and nightclubs. Hannen Swaffer (1879–1962) was
the drama critic of the Daily Herald. In the book
this image is accompanied by the verse: H is for
Hannen. Will anyone offer a credible reason why
God thought of Swaffer?'
Top Right
John Galsworthy, illustration for
'The ABC of the Theatre' 1932
Ink on paper
National Portrait Gallery, purchased 1996
This drawing of the celebrated novelist and
playwright (1967–1933) was accompanied by the
verse: 'G is for Galsworthy. We could do after all
with a little less worth and rather more gall'
Bottom Right
The Critics, illustration for
'The ABC of the Theatre' 1932
Ink on paper
National Portrait Gallery, purchased 1996
This weary group of critics queuing at a theatre bar
shows from left to right: St. John Greer Ervine
(1883–1971), Ivor Brown (1891–1974), Langbridge
Morgan (1894–1958) and James Evershed Agate
(1877–1947). In 'The ABC of the Theatre' it was
accompanied by Humbert Wolfe's verse, 'E is for
Ervine, Brown, Morgan and Agate looking patiently
round for something to nag at.'