Léonard Sarluis was the son of an antique dealer. Immersed in European artistic circles from a young age, he studied at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in The Hague from 1891 to 1893, before moving to Paris in 1894. With Armand Point’s support, he became involved in the Symbolist movement and exhibited at the 1896 Salon of the Rose + Croix. His unique painting style was well received by critics, with Edgar Degas and Pierre Puvis de Chavannes counting among his early supporters. His attempts to define his identity as a painter led him to dress in neo-Renaissance attire, to mingle with the artistic and literary Symbolist elite, notably forming a friendship with Oscar Wilde, and to change his first name to Léonard in homage to Leonardo da Vinci.
Our portrait showcases Sarluis’ ability to translate the poses and attitudes of Italian Renaissance sitters into the realm of early 20th-century portraiture. The glimpse of a distant landscape in the background, skillfully rendered with aerial perspective, is a clear nod to the artist’s devotion to the work of Leonardo da Vinci. Sarluis’ portraits, often characterised by an intense homoerotic charge, combined Classicism and Symbolism to create idealised images and dreamlike, symbol-charged atmospheres with rich, warm palettes.
Our sitter, Léonide Orlay de Carva, later known as Serge Oukrainsky (1885–1971), was a prominent ballet dancer and choreographer from Odessa, Russia. After studying in Paris, he began his career at the Théâtre de Châtelet in 1911 and joined Anna Pavlova’s company in 1913. She led his way to the United States, and specifically to Chicago, where he settled in 1915. In the Windy City, he founded the Pavley-Oukrainsky School of Ballet with the celebrated American dancer Andreas Pavley, as well as the Serge Oukrainsky Ballet Company. In 1927, he moved to California to explore new business and artistic opportunities to “tap into the gold in Hollywood’s mountains”. He directed ballet sequences for films and maintained his teaching role at a branch school he established in Los Angeles that same year. The Pavley-Oukrainsky partnership endured despite Oukrainsky’s relocation. In 1930, the duo collaborated with Warner Brothers and Fox Films to produce an avant-garde performance that combined film projections with live choreography on stage. In 1937, Oukrainsky worked as ballet master for a season with the San Francisco Opera Company. After returning to Los Angeles, he led the Los Angeles Opera Ballet and spent the final decades of his life teaching.
Sarluis portrays the dancer in a confident hand-on-hip pose as he gazes directly at the viewer; yet the sitter’s representation as a kind, approachable sportsman offers a refreshing take on masculinity.