Nobilissima Visione or St. Francis, design for ballet

Pavel Tchelitchew was an American painter and stage designer born in Russia who worked across figurative painting, theatrical design, and set decoration. His canvases combined surrealist and expressionist vocabularies with classical figuration, often depicting elongated human forms and dreamlike interiors. Active in New York and Europe through the mid-twentieth century, he created both easel works and large-scale designs for ballet and opera productions. His practice bridged fine art and performance, with particular attention to formal distortion and psychological intensity.

Kaluga, Russia