Sketches of scenery for Sadko by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov 1914

Ivan Bilibin dreamed up these sketches of scenery for Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera Sadko. Imagine him with his pencils and paints, trying to visualize the opera’s setting. It's a whimsical mix of reality and fairy tale. The upper section, bright and airy, shows a town by the sea, complete with ships and a radiant sun, very story-book like. The archway below frames a more intimate, almost dreamlike space. I see landscapes and figures rendered in muted tones. There's a sense of depth and mystery. The composition is really interesting, how the artist divides the space, leading our eye from the grand, public scene to the more personal, internal world. You know, creating stage designs is a different kind of painting. Instead of a singular canvas, the artist has to imagine how the design will function in a three-dimensional space, coming alive with actors. It’s like Bilibin is building a world within a world.