Winter Scene: Design for a Ballet

What you are looking at

A winter street scene at dusk or twilight, with heavy snow clinging to bare tree branches in the upper right that create an almost lacy canopy overhead. The left side shows the façade of a town house with warm lamplight spilling from tall windows; two figures in dark coats stand at the entrance. The right foreground features two elegantly dressed figures—a woman in a long skirt with fitted bodice and the man beside her in formal evening wear with a top hat—who appear to have paused mid-stroll on the snowy street. The palette is cool grays and whites for the snow and architecture, warmed by golden lamplight, creating strong shadows and silhouettes. The composition captures a moment of social encounter in an aristocratic winter setting, with careful attention to the play of light, shadow, and the delicate tracery of frost-laden branches.

The dancing

The couple on the right stand in close proximity, the woman slightly turned toward the man, her posture open and receptive; the man leans subtly toward her. Both wear formal evening dress—the woman in a full-skirted gown with apparent corseting, the man in a tailcoat and top hat. Their stance suggests a moment of intimate conversation or courtship rather than active dance movement; the bodies are upright and controlled, weight evenly distributed, no weight transfer or footwork visible. The figures at the house entrance are more static sentries, framing the social world these promenaders inhabit.

The dance depicted

This is not a scene of active dancing but of ballroom-society courtship in a winter setting, likely drawn for a ballet scenario rather than depicting ballet movement itself. The image captures the social context and dramatic moment that would frame or precede dance—the chance meeting, the romantic encounter. If this is a design for a ballet, it establishes mood and narrative rather than choreographic detail. The formal evening dress and aristocratic setting suggest the Romantic ballet of the mid-to-late nineteenth century, when such scenes of courtship in snow were part of the dramatic apparatus (compare the winter settings in works like Giselle or La Sylphide), though no active dance technique is evident.

How it was made

The work is executed in gouache with watercolor over traces of black chalk on cream wove paper—a technique suited to rapid scenic design and color study. Gouache's opacity allowed the artist to build luminous highlights (the snow, the lamplight) over darker underpainted areas, while the watercolor adds translucent glazes and subtle modeling. This is a preliminary or presentation design rather than a finished painting; the combination of media and the paper support are typical of theatrical design practice in the early twentieth century, allowing quick revision and easy reproduction for theater archives or costume design consultation.

About this work

This is a stage design by Nicolai Remisoff dated 1907, created to establish the setting and mood for a scene in a ballet variously titled Winter Scene. Remisoff, an émigré Russian designer who worked extensively for the Ballets Russes and American theater, was known for dramatic use of light and atmospheric effect. The image shows not a moment of dance but the romantic and social world in which dance takes place—the aristocratic street encounter that would motivate or frame the choreography. It exemplifies the Romantic ballet tradition's use of winter, snow, and chance meetings as dramatic devices, and demonstrates the theatrical designer's role in establishing narrative context and emotional tone through color, light, and setting rather than through the bodies of dancers.

How to look at it

Attend to the composition's staging of social hierarchy and romantic possibility: the bright, warm interior is separated from the cold street where the couple encounters; light and darkness, interior and exterior, define the dramatic space. The snow-laden branches create a canopy of natural beauty that frames human drama—a Romantic trope. The artist has chosen a moment of social pause, not movement; the couple's body language suggests the emotional content (attraction, restraint, formality) more than it depicts physical action. Notice how the gouache highlights—the snow, the lamplight—create the emotional tone of winter romance that would suffuse whatever choreography followed.

The artist

Nicolai Remisoff (1887–1975) was a Russian-born scenic and costume designer who became a central figure in twentieth-century theatrical design, particularly through his long association with the Ballets Russes and later work in American theater and film. He was known for dramatic atmospheric effects, rich color, and a romantic sensibility that honored the traditions of Russian imperial theater while embracing modernist principles of design economy and symbolic suggestion. His work spanned ballet, opera, drama, and cinema, and he was influential in establishing the designer as a key creative voice in theatrical production.

The period

In 1907, the Ballets Russes was not yet founded (Diaghilev's company premiered in 1909), but Russian theatrical modernism was at a height. The Romantic ballet tradition, including its signature winter scenes and supernatural encounters, remained a living repertory in Russian imperial theaters and continued to influence new creation. Early twentieth-century design was moving away from literal illusionism toward more stylized, atmospheric suggestion—precisely what Remisoff achieves here through the economy of the gouache medium and the emphasis on light and mood over architectural detail. The work belongs to a moment when theatrical design was becoming recognized as a high art form rather than mere decoration.

Where it lives

The work is held in the Prints and Drawings collection at the Art Institute of Chicago. It is a preliminary design work on paper, part of the archival record of theatrical production rather than a finished artwork for independent exhibition.

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