Provenance
The Artist's Family
Note: The great Russian ballerina Lopokova may have been delightful as an occasional party guest, but as a permanent presence she was rapidly seen to be an irritant. It was the sanctity of Bloomsbury conversation that came under particular threat. Lopokova was an intelligent woman, a friend of Picasso and a former mistress of Stravinsky, and she possessed a genuine, if untutored, curiosity about literature, politics and ideas. HG Wells would insist she was "not just clever for a ballerina, she was clever for anyone". Yet, after working long hours in the theatre, she preferred gossip and nonsense to serious discussion. And it didn't help that her English was not sufficiently fluent to follow dense cultural references. "You cannot argue solidly in her presence," fumed Virginia Woolf. "She has no head piece." Clive Bell, equally frustrated, complained that she had "only one subject - the ballet". Duncan Grant, on the other hand, was fascinated by the expressive mobility of Lopokova's body, and designed several ballet sets and costumes for her. Otherwise, within the massive archives of Bloomsbury letters and diaries, there is little evidence that the members of the group had much interest in her art or career. Judith Mackrell - The Guardian, 22 March 2008.