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Joseph Rous Paget-Fredericks Dance Collection, ca. 1913-1945
BANC PIC 1964.009-024
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Collection Title: Joseph Rous Paget-Fredericks Dance Collection,
Date (inclusive): ca. 1913-1945
Collection Number: BANC PIC 1964.009-024
Creator:
Paget-Fredericks, J. (Joseph Rous), 1903-1963
Extent:
Approximately 2,000 original drawings, paintings and photographs, as well as scrapbooks and
other dance memorabilia.
Thirty historic dance costumes (on extended loan to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco).
368 digital objects
Repository:
The Bancroft Library. The University of California, Berkeley.
Berkeley, California 94720-6000
Languages Represented:
English
The following parts of the collection are stored off-campus:
BANC PIC 1964.012 A/AX
BANC PIC 1964.015 ALB
BANC PIC 1964.016 ALB
All dance costumes are on extended loan to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
BANC PIC 1964.012 A/AX
BANC PIC 1964.015 ALB
BANC PIC 1964.016 ALB
All dance costumes are on extended loan to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
Copyright has not been assigned to The Bancroft Library. All requests for permission to publish
photographs must be submitted in writing to the Curator of Pictorial Collections. Permission for
publication is given on behalf of The Bancroft Library as the owner of the physical items and is not
intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the
reader.
Copyright restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use of
digital files is restricted to research and educational purposes.
[Identification of item],
Joseph Rous Paget-Fredericks Dance Collection, BANC PIC
1964.009-024, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
Digital Representations Available
Digital representations of selected original
pictorial materials are available in the list of materials below.
Digital image files were
prepared from selected Library originals by the Library Photographic Service. Library originals were
copied onto 35mm color transparency film; the film was scanned and transferred to Kodak Photo CD (by
Custom Process); and the Photo CD files were color-corrected and saved in JFIF (JPEG) format for use
as viewing files.
Removed or Separated Material
- Printed materials have been transferred to the book collection of The Bancroft Library.
- The Paget-Fredericks Manuscript Collection is housed in the Manuscripts Division of The Bancroft Library under the call number BANC MSS 72/156 c.
The Paget-Fredericks Dance Collection was given to The University of California at Berkeley by Sarah
Montmorency (the artist's sister) in 1964. Additions were made to the collection in 1976.
Finding aid and digital representations of archival material funded in part by a grant from the
National Endowment for the Humanities.
Joseph Rous Paget-Fredericks was born in his family's San Francisco home at the corner of Clay St. and
Webster St. in 1905. His mother, Constance Paget-Fredericks, was born in San Francisco when her father,
a Special Correspondent for the London Times, was on his way to Japan as British Minister. The artist's
father, Arthur Remy von Hohenthal Fredericks, was also born in San Francisco as his parents were headed
for St. Petersburg. Descendant of the famous Baltic lumber barons, Paget-Fredericks' father was a
well-known western business man and philanthropist.
Paget-Fredericks' maternal grandmother and her family had a great interest in the theater. They developed
and preserved Europe's first Theater Art Museum in their home Martendale Greathouse, the celebrated
"summer palace" of Charles II. It was also here that the King signed the land-grant and Charter of
Charleston, South Carolina. Constance Paget-Fredericks continued her family's tradition of collecting
art--her link with so many distinguised English and Russian families gave her easy access to the most
famous artists and their work. Throughout the early 20th century she was hostess to all the great
dancers visiting California. Her collection of theater and dance memorabilia and art was unrivaled. The
family home contained numerous souvenirs of Loie Fuller, Isadora Duncan, Ruth St. Denis, Vaslav Nijinsky
and Anna Pavlova (including many of her beautiful costumes for such ballets as "Swan", "Giselle",
"Rondino" and "Gavotte").
On his father's side of the family was a strong tie to Russian art and culture. Paget-Fredericks' uncle
was Count Vladimir Borisovitch Fredericks, First Minister of the Imperial Court from 1900-1917; all arts
in Russia functioned under his supervision. In 1909, Count Fredericks arranged for Serge Diaghilev to
take the Ballet Russe to Paris for a festival of Russian culture. Led by prima ballerina Anna Pavlova
and artistic designer Leon Bakst, this was to be the company's first performance outside of Russia.
Needless to say, they were a great success. Young Paget-Fredericks first became acquainted with the
members of the Ballets Russe during their visit to San Francisco, where they were entertained by the
Paget-Fredericks family.
Growing up in the midst of such theatrical oppulence, it is no wonder Paget-Fredericks turned his
attention to the arts at an early age. In 1921, at the age of 16, he presented the first of ten original
pageants at the Greek Theater in Berkeley. The title of the July 28, 1921 performance was "An Hour of
Dance Impressions by Joseph Paget-Fredericks". Two years later he performed in "Joseph Paget-Fredericks
in a Programme of Expressionistic Dances." He also portrayed Magazu, a medicine man, in "The Days of
Peralta, a Spectacle-Drama", which recalled the day in 1820 when "the Governor of California granted to
Luis Peralta the San Antonio Rancho, a piece of land which includes the present site of Oakland,
Berkeley and Alameda".
Paget-Fredericks attended the University of California as well as numerous universities in Europe; he
also studied art with Leon Bakst and John Singer Sargent. Pavlova and Bakst were so impressed with his
drawings and paintings that they sponsored his first show in Paris.
Dance authorities praised his work and in 1930 he was invited to serve as Art Director for Pavlova's
world tours (1932-33). Paget-Fredericks designed the 1941 American production of Tchiakovsky's "Swan
Lake," which was presented at the San Francisco Opera House. Joseph Paget-Fredericks was the first
person to lecture on dance at a university in the United States when he taught at the University of
California in 1939. He also taught courses in color and design at California College of Arts and Crafts
in Oakland and Jean Turner Art Center in San Francisco. At the time of his death he was working on texts
for a lecture series on dance to be given at the University of California. He planned to speak of people
he knew intimately: Loie Fuller, who was responsible for Alma Spreckles donating the Palace of the
Legion of Honor to San Francisco; Isadora Duncan; Ruth St. Denis; Pavlova and her American partner
Hubert Stowitts; and Nijinsky. He was the author and illustrator of several childrens books and planned
to write a series of books on dance. His book about Pavlova,
I Shall Always Love the
West
, was the only book from this series to be published. Joseph Paget-Fredericks passed away in
his Berkeley home in the spring of 1963.
The Paget-Fredericks Dance Collection contains roughly 2,000 original drawings, paintings, photographs
and pieces of memorabilia that date from ca. 1913 to ca. 1945. The collection is arranged by subject and
format into sixteen groups, numbered 1964.009 to 1964.024. Various media and sizes are represented. The
categories by subject include: Isadora Duncan; Loie Fuller; Vaslav Nijinsky; Anna Pavlova; Ruth St.
Denis; other dancers; decor and costume designs for ballets; other figure and costume studies;
illustrations and graphic design; miscellaneous drawings and paintings; juvenilia; historic dance
costumes; printed pictures and clippings; photographic prints; portraits; and works by other artists in
various media. The material in the collection was either created or collected by Joseph
Paget-Fredericks.