Anna Pavlova – L’incomparabile

Today almost 90 years after her passing, Anna Pavlova still remains the unchallenged ideal of technical perfection and expressiveness. This impassioned biography by Martine Planells highlights Pavlovla’s artistic development and above all her extraordinary modernity when considering the canons in vogue at the end of the nineteenth century. Already her figure, so petite, slim and delicate, seemed expressly created for the demands of a light and airy style yet one that was infused with ardent emotion. Behind the ballerina who was worshipped like a goddess in all the world’s theatres, this biography also recalls the private Pavlova. It evokes her failing health, her personal disappointments, her Italian romance with the painter Alexander Jacovieff. Indeed, Jacovieff’s Portrait of Anna Pavlova was what first inspired Planells to undertake this beautiful book.

• – An absolute first for many international markets where the last publication on Pavlova might date back to 1931, the year of her death.
• – Four years of documentation and research have given rise to Planells’ biography. It is particularly rich in facts, occurrences and anecdotes that are related for the first time about Pavlova’s artistic and personal life.
• – Among Panells’ sources was a little treasure of information that had completely fallen into oblivion but that was recently “rediscovered” by the author. This is the Fonds Pavlova at the Paris Opera’s library and museum.