A Skater. Costume design for the ballet Skating Rink

A Skater. Costume design for the ballet Skating Rink was created by Fernand Léger in 1924. This work, executed primarily in gouache, ink, and pencil on paper, is classified as a drawing and serves as a vital artifact of avant-garde theatrical production in the early 20th century. Léger, a leading figure in the French modern movement, designed the costumes for the ballet Skating Rink (also known as Salade), which was commissioned by Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. The collaboration represents a significant moment when major visual artists brought their established aesthetic principles directly into the realm of stage design.

Léger’s design features a dynamic figure rendered in the artist’s characteristic mechanistic style, emphasizing geometric shapes and clearly defined, often tubular, outlines rather than fluid anatomy. The skater’s costume is visually complex, employing bold planes of color and high-contrast lines that were intended to translate effectively onto a theatrical stage. This visual strategy was necessary to convey movement and speed under performance lighting. This approach aligns with the artist’s Post-Cubist aesthetic, which sought to integrate the precision and efficiency of modern industrial life into fine art, often treating the human form as a composite machine.

Created during a period of intense collaboration between European artists and international ballet companies, this piece exemplifies how Léger translated his signature visual vocabulary into functional, theatrical art in 1924. This unique French drawing offers important insight into the cross-pollination of visual culture and performance during the Dada and Surrealist era. The work is currently housed in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Though the original drawing remains a carefully preserved artifact, the influence of A Skater is substantial, and high-quality prints and reproductions of the work are often available, ensuring that the legacy of Léger’s 1924 theatrical design remains accessible to the public domain.