A large suite of costume designs, the majority signed "Planitz". Possibly the French dancer, and actor Clotilde Margarete Anna Edle von der Planitz (1892-1974), known professionally as Clotilde von Derp, a German expressionist dancer, and early exponent of modern dance. "Her career was spent essentially dancing together with her husband Alexander Sakharoff (1886-1963), a Russian illustrator, dancer, teacher, and choreographer who immigrated to France. The drawings show designs for Der Fledermaus (8 drawings), a play by the Russian writer Maxim Gorky (1868-1936), here titled Bulytschow (30 drawings, each with a character name and actor's surname [?]), and for a third unknown historical play, including three bandits named Müller, Häusch, and Schenk. The latter set dated [19]54. A fourth suite of drawings is clearly different, and may well be the work of Alexander. He was born Alexander Zuckermann to a Jewish family in Mariupol, Russian Empire (now Ukraine) and is known as one of the most innovative soloist dancers of the first decades of the 20th century. He trained as a painter at the Academie de Beaux Arts and the Académie Julian in Paris, which makes it quite possible that he is the artist. These costumes were made, apparently, for a play, Goldenes Anker [set in The Golden Anchor, a bar in Marseille] directed by "Winkler" (pencilled annotations). The play, originally titled Marius, was written in 1929 by the French playwright Marcel Paul Pagnol (1895-1974). In 1931 this was made into a film, also titled Marius, directed by Alexander Korda, who later directed a German version, titled Zum Goldenen Anker. Clotilde and Alexander married in 1919 and enjoyed a long-lasting relationship. As a child, Von Derp dreamt of becoming a violinist but from an early age she discovered how talented she was as a dancer. After receiving ballet lessons from Julie Bergmann and Anna Ornelli from the Munich Opera, she gave her first performance on 25 April 1910, using the stage name Clotilde von Derp. The audience were enthralled by her striking beauty and youthful grace. Max Reinhardt presented her in the title role in his pantomime Sumurûn which proved a great success while on tour in London. A photo of her by Rudolf Dührkoop was exhibited in 1913 at the Royal Photographic Society. Clotilde was a member of the radical Blaue Reiter Circle which had been started by Wassily Kandinsky in 1911. Among her admirers were artists such as Rainer Maria Rilke and Yvan Goll. For his Swiss dance presentations, Alexej von Jawlensky gave her make-up resembling his abstract portraits. Her style was said to be elegant and more modern than that achieved by Isadora Duncan. After Von Derp and Sakharoff married, they appeared at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, with the financial support of Edith Rockefeller. They lived in Paris until the Second World War using the name 'Les Sakharoff'. Their 1921 poster by George Barbier to advertise their work was seen as showing a mutually complementary androgynous couple, united in dance, joined together in an act of artistic creation. read more