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[STAGE MAKEUP] Iskusstvo grima: Nagliadnoe posobie dlia kruzhkovtsev, dramshkol i profakterov [i.e. Art of Makeup. A Visual Handbook for Members of Art Sections, Drama Schools and Professional Stage Actors]

Novlianskii, N.

Item #1067

Moscow: Teakinopechat', 1930. 24 leaves. 25,5x36 cm. In original illustrated wrappers. Spine and covers repaired, some soiling, otherwise very good.

First and only edition. Rare as a practical handbook printed in an album format.
An interesting early manual on how to apply stage makeup compiled by Nikolai Novlianskii (1891-1966). Since 1924 he was an actor of Moscow Kamerny theater performing dozens of roles. He was a master of stage makeup who taught GITIS students and wrote three manuals in 1930, 1940 and 1945.
The Kamerny theater was highly innovative in either stage or makeup designs. This album contains detailed instructions for the creation of certain types of characters. Their faces were produced by artist and theatrical designer Vadim Ryndin (1902-1974) who contributed to stagings of the Kamerny Theater in 1927-1944.
There are common characters: young men (bourgeois, worker, peasant) and the same for young women; stereotypical characters: soldier, sailor, scholar, old revolutionary, farm laborer, factory director, female activist and secretary, prostitute, servant, landlady, tradeswoman, praying woman; grotesque characters: priest, capitalist, general, kulak, gossip, witch, monkey; sick characters: exhausted, obese, mad, blind people; national characters: Chinese, African American, Spanish, British, Zaporizhian, Armenian, Georgian, Tatar people; as well as types from Russian stagings performed most often - Nikolai Gogol’s characters: two male, two female and Ostrovsky’s characters: weak, tricky, tyrant.
Apart from them, three double-page spreads are dedicated to how to apply a prosthetic nose of different forms, principles of changing chin, cheekbones, ears, eyes, eyebrows and lips.
Two leaves feature pictures taken by Rusfoto photographer Boris Fabisovich. The first one shows how to apply skull makeup, another one - how to make prosthetics.
The book was published with reviews by the director of Kamerny theater, Alexander Tairov and the tutor of Novlianskii, theater director Alexander Petrovskii.

Only copy located in the Library of Congress.

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