Stettheimer wrote the libretto and designed the costumes for this unrealized ballet inspired by the extravagant, festive annual balls first held in the 1890s at the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris’s most prestigious art school. Elaborately constructed with shimmering beads, metallic fabric, and fur accents, these works depict the various characters that Georgette, the ballet’s main character, encounters during a procession along the Champs Élysées, the famous avenue in central Paris. Mirroring Stettheimer’s own life, Georgette’s journey is populated by artists and socialites. The artist also
included other, more fantastical, characters, including the nymph Eurydice, a medieval knight, and even a unicorn, creating a world both mythological and modern.
Gallery label from 2020
