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an image of a painting of a cat in a red curtain
Premium Maître Nicolas CONSTANTY

25 - Sergei Soudeikine (1883–1946) – The Bat.
See original version (French)

Estimate €4,000 - €5,000
Sale commission
Description
Sergei Soudeikine (1883–1946) – The Bat. 1920. Lubok printer. 113 × 78 cm. Original poster, lithograph, mounted on canvas. Condition A-, very slight traces of original creases, two slight vertical tears of 9 cm, restored, in the upper section. Trained as a painter in Moscow, Soudeikine also worked as a set designer. He first travelled to Paris in 1913 to work with Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes, then returned in 1920 with the ‘Chauve-Souris’ troupe, a vaudeville-style theatre company founded in 1908 by Nikita Balieff, whose name is both that of the company and that of the theatre they had left behind in Moscow. Fleeing Russia in 1918 due to the Bolshevik Revolution, the troupe settled in Paris, where they performed for the first time in 1920 at the Théâtre Femina on the Champs-Élysées, before continuing on to New York. The style of the show mirrored the poster: extremely modern and disconcerting for the time, yet immediately hailed by the public. The poster also served as a metaphor for this forced exile. Unlike what Parisian audiences of the Roaring Twenties were used to, the troupe put on performances just as they did back home, that is to say, blending cabaret, improvisation, music hall, dance, traditional Russian theatre, circus and avant-garde. So much so that the poster never featured any text, as people came to see a performance by the Chauve Souris troupe; what took place was always a surprise. This extremely rare poster, which reinterprets a traditional style with a stunning modernity that bridges Art Nouveau and Art Deco, is imbued with theatricality. A huge stage curtain parts to reveal a bat flying from the Kremlin in Russia towards Paris (the silhouettes of the Eiffel Tower and Luna Park can be made out), whilst a masked clown appears in the foreground. In 1923, Soudeikine settled in the USA and collaborated with the Metropolitan Opera.
See original version (French)
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About the sale Shocking posters! Poster sale no. 18.
Auction location
Auction time 11/05/2026 at 4:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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