The use of symbols, sensuality and the correspondence between words, colours and music were key components. Gray related to these movements’ ideals of synaesthesia. Rather than conveying moral or sentimental messages they professed that the arts should engage with the haptic and cognitive senses, providing refined sensuous pleasure. Later Gray refined her ideas on synaesthesia especially in her lacquer work and interior design, creating rooms with furniture and furnishings which directly engaged with all of the occupant’s senses.
3.2 Drawing of a nude figure in a landscape, unknown date, paper, paint, crayon, pencil, collage © NMI
Whistler’s book The Gentle Art of Making Enemies emphasised how art was its own end and that nature was rarely right, relying upon the artist to improve it through his own vision.5 The artist’s responsibility was not to society but to himself to interpret through art, and neither to reproduce nor moralise what he saw. This book invited controversy, a self-authorised publication critical of those such as Ruskin, who accused him of throwing a pot of paint in the public’s face after Whistler had exhibited Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket in The Grosvenor Gallery, London in 1877.6 Gray maintained this distance in her treatment of her natural subject matter. One particular undated abstract, untitled, monograph completed in pencil and charcoal suggests the figure of a nude woman standing on rocks in front of a waterfall or possibly trees.7 Gray’s lack of colour and use of bleak monochromatic tones develops a muted, yet harmonious composition. A separation between the background and foreground occur with Gray’s simplistic treatment of the nude figure. The only suggestion of colour is developed through the pale blurred lines of a faint yellow, suggesting the reflection of the moon. As with the majority of Gray’s artwork this piece is unsigned.
Gray remained interested in the life, ideas and work of Whistler, purchasing in 1908 The Life of James McNeill Whistler written by his friends Joseph (1860-1926) and Elizabeth Pennell (1862-1952)8 which had an illustration of The Peacock Room which he completed in 1876-77.9 Whistler’s palette of brilliant greens and blues influenced the choice of colours used in some of her early lacquer work and in an early gouache completed in the same colours which was probably intended for a carpet.10
Gray’s interest in the work of Aubrey Beardsley was surprising as his work has become known in the larger context of Art Nouveau – a movement that Gray did not appreciate. She stated: ‘I don’t care to be absorbed into it as representing willingly a disciple of Art Nouveau’.11 Gray owned a copy of The Early Work of Aubrey Beardsley, 1899 by John Lane.12 But it was Beardsley’s use of a defined line with his caricatures which intrigued her. Her interest in caricatures also led her to purchase Les Caricatures de Puvis de Chavannes, by Marcelle Adam in 1906 and a copy of James Ensor, by Emile Verhaeren, in 1908.13 The nineteenth century became the heyday for caricature and by the mid-nineteenth century there was an enormous output of graphic and sculptural caricature, with a great number of artists like Beardsley, de Chavannes and Ensor dedicated to it. Caricatures by Aubrey Beardsley, James Ensor (1860-1949) and Puvis de Chavannes directly inspired the drawings which eventually culminated in Gray’s Ballet des Animaux, (The Animals’ Ballet) 1916-1919 and her fresco drawings from the 1940s. She appreciated these satirical drawings and their use of the grotesque. Whereas the caricatures of Beardsley, Ensor and de Chavannes mocked the salon, or the establishment, or documented relationships with other artists or friends, Gray’s characters are noted more for their graphic adventurousness rather than their allegorical nature.
The drawings for Ballet des Animaux are a surprising contrast to Gray’s better known abstract art work which adheres to the ideas and principles of early twentieth-century art movements. They also reveal Gray’s interest in children. Gray’s designs have looked to children on several occasions and she had explored furniture for their rooms and playrooms.14 Throughout her career Gray was considered withdrawn, reserved, a devotee of her work, aloof and somewhat stuffy, however the light-hearted theme for this ballet and its characters reveal her conviviality, her sense of irony and her wit.
Another influence for the creation of this ballet was Sergei Diaghilev’s (1872-1929) Ballet Russes production of Schéhérazade which opened on 4 June 1910 at the Théâtre National de l’Opéra in Paris. The music was by Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov (1844-1908) and the set and costumes were created by Léon Bakst (1866-1924). Gray purchased two reproductions of Bakst’s drawings of the décor and costumes but it is uncertain whether she actually saw the performance.15 The ballet had a profound effect in French artistic circles, sending a rippling effect through the decorative arts, with the use of fauve and symbolist colours, sumptuous and exotic materials and a strong sense of exoticism. Gray rejected the exoticism yet the use of colour and unusual materials appeared in her work throughout her lifetime.16
3.3 Damia, by Paul O’Doye, 1909-12, black and white photograph © NMI
Gray had a long-time interest in stage design and encouraged by her friend the famous actor Marisa Damia (1892-1978)17 who was introduced to her by Gaby Bloch (1879-1957), she began the drawings of scenario and character sketches dated 1916-1919 for Ballet des Animaux. At that time a number of artists were designing ballets. Rolfe de Mare (1888-1964) along with the post-impressionist painter Nils von Dardel (1888-1943) created the Ballet Suédois at the Théâtre de Champs-Élysées and by 1924 Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978) curated the scenography and the costumes for Pirandello’s La Giara.18 Before the First World War Comte Étienne de Beaumont (1883-1956) and his wife, a leading couple in Parisian society known for their extravagant parties and masquerade balls, financed a number of ballets, and with the assistance of Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) presented at the Soirées de Paris which combined ballet, poetry and theatre at the Théâtre de la Cigale in Montmartre. Throughout her life Gray had a particular interest in the combined illustrative and poetry work of filmmaker Jean Cocteau, whom she knew through her circles, and she purchased a copy of Dessins, in 1923.19 She also saw his film Le Testament d’Orphée (The Testament of Orpheus) in 1960 and stated that she was bitterly disappointed with it.20 Gray also had a copy of Belgium poet Paul Méral’s (1895-1946) Dit des Jeux du monde, a poem which was adapted into a play.21 The costumes and dance were created by Guy. P. Fauconnet (1882-1960) and the music by Arthur Honegger (1892-1955). Honegger was commissioned to write the score in 1918. It was a mimed ballet and was staged at the Théâtre Musical Moderne du Vieux Colombier, directed by J. Bathoiengel. It was recited by actors wearing masks peaking in unison. All of these different sources influenced Gray’s design.22