Adolf Bolm in Le Carnaval (Monsieur Adolph Bolm, Le Carnaval)

One of the most famous portraitists in early 20th–century London, E. O. Hoppé became as much of a celebrity as the people he photographed. He had long been fascinated by dance, and when Sergei Diaghilev’s famous Ballets Russes caused a sensation in the city in June 1911, he secured the exclusive rights to photograph the company’s principal dancers. Hoppé prepared for portraits in great depth, reading up on his sitters and their interests, and he strived to put the dancers at ease in sessions that often lasted most of a day. In 1913 the Fine Art Society published 13 of these images in a portfolio, the first of many books of Hoppé’s work.