Costume Design for Cleopatra

Inscription: Signed, dated, and inscribed (lower right, in pen and ink): Cléopâtre / S. Delaunay-Terk 1918 / 834 / [partially erased graphite "Cleopatre" / S. Delaunay-Terk / pour [...] 19[...]]

William S. Lieberman, New York (by 1978–d. 2005; his bequest to MMA)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Diaghilev: Costumes and Designs of the Ballets Russes," November 24, 1978–June 30, 1979, unnum. brochure (as "Costume Design for Title Role of 'Cléopâtre'," lent by William S. Lieberman).

National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. "Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes, 1909-1929: When Art Danced with Music," May 12–September 2, 2013, extended to October 6, 2013, unnumbered cat. (pl. 165).

Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. "Sonia Delaunay. Les couleurs de l'abstraction," October 17, 2014–February 22, 2015, unnumbered cat. (p. 277).

London. Tate Modern. "Sonia Delaunay," April 15–August 9, 2015, unnumbered cat. (p. 277).

Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University. "Hymn to Apollo: The Ancient World and the Ballets Russes," March 6–June 2, 2019, no. 54 (as "Costume Design for the Title Role of Cléopâtre").

George Dorris. "Looking at Dance History: Three Exhibitions." Dance Chronicle 2, no. 3 (1978), p. 240.

Juliet Bellow. Modernism on Stage: The Ballets Russes and the Parisian Avant-Garde. Surrey, 2013, pp. 129–66, discusses the artist's costume designs for the ballet "Cleopatra" and reproduces a sketch (fig. 3.6; private collection) very similar to this one.

Kenneth Lapatin, Rachel Herschman, and Clare Fitzgerald in Hymn to Apollo: The Ancient World and the Ballets Russes. Ed. Clare Fitzgerald. Exh. cat., Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University. New York, 2019, pp. 87, 127, no. 54, figs. 1–7 (color).

Waleria Dorogova in Sonia Delaunay: Living Art. Ed. Waleria Dorogova and Laura Microulis. Exh. cat., Bard Graduate Center Gallery. New York, 2024, p. 137, fig. 6.3 (color).