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Kenneth ROWELL

Fairfield, Victoria, Australia 1920 – Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 1999

  • Movements: UK, Europe 1950-c.1982 with frequent visits to Australia
  • Australia from c.1982


Costume designs for the Three Ivans from Sleeping Beauty
[Three Ivans (costume design - Sleeping Beauty - Act III)] 1973
Australia
Decorative Arts and Design, Drawing, Technique: watercolour, gouache and pencil
Primary Insc: Signed lower left below image in pencil, 'Rowell>>'. Not dated. Titled lower right below image in pencil, 'The Sleeping Beauty - / Three Ivans-Act III'. Not inscribed.
image 45.6 h x 55.9 w cm
sheet 52.0 h x 63.4 w cm
Purchased 1974
Accession No: NGA 74.202
Subject: Theatre arts, Australia

MORE DETAIL

For children:

The sleeping beauty

Once upon a time a grand party was held by a king to celebrate the birth of his baby daughter. All the fairies of the kingdom were invited to bless his daughter Aurora. The fairies presented their gifts of beauty, grace, generosity, song, and temperament. But one fairy, Carabosse, interrupted the party. She was angry and insulted because the king had forgotten to invite her.

Carabosse announced a curse on Aurora: that one day she will prick her finger and die. Luckily the Lilac Fairy had not yet given her present to the baby girl. She declared that although Aurora would one day prick her finger, she would not die. Instead she would fall into a deep sleep from which she will be awoken after a hundred years by the kiss of a prince.

The image of the three Ivans and film footage is taken from Peggy van Praagh’s 1974 production of The sleeping beauty, directed by Sir Robert Helpmann and designed by Kenneth Rowell. In the premiere performance Lucette Aldous performed the role of Princess Aurora with Garth Welch as her Prince. During the season both Maina Gielgud and Marilyn Jones danced as Princess Aurora.


Text © National Gallery of Australia, Canberra 2010