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Bayadère de Chemakha

Grigoriy Grigorievich Gagarin

1842

watercolor

From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum

Romanticism Early 19th Century

Dominant colour

Bayadère de Chemakha is a 1842 watercolor by Grigoriy Grigorievich Gagarin, a Romanticism work, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.

Who painted this?: Grigoriy Grigorievich Gagarin
When & what style?: 1842 · Romanticism
Where can I see it?: Victoria and Albert Museum

About this work

This is a watercolour by Prince Gagarin from around 1842. It shows people in traditional costumes from Azerbaijan and Georgia. The artist traveled there and made careful notes about what he saw. Gagarin’s work helps us see a part of the world most artists rarely visited back then. His detailed drawings were meant to go in a book, but this one wasn’t used. Next, look up the movement called Romanticism.

The story of this work

Overview

Grigoriy Grigorievich Gagarin’s watercolor depicts a dancing girl from Shemakha, a city west of Baku, annotated with details about her costume and coloring. The work reflects Gagarin’s travels in the Caucasus, where he documented traditional attire amid limited Western artistic representation of the region in the 1840s. Though not included in his later published volumes of lithographs, the drawing aligns with his broader documentation of local customs and dress. The term "Bayadère," borrowed from Portuguese via French usage, evokes associations with Hindu dancing girls and theatrical…

Read the full account in the museum source.