Marriage, Decline, and Demise
In
1913 the
Ballets Russes toured
South America, and because of Diaghilev's belief that he would die on water, as he was told by a fortune teller in his younger days, he was incapable of crossing water and thus did not accompany them. Without his mentor's supervision Nijinsky entered a relationship with
Romola Pulszky, a Hungarian
countess. An ardent fan of Nijinsky, she took up ballet and used her family connections to get close to him. Despite her efforts to attract him, Nijinsky appeared unconscious of her presence. Finally Romola booked passage on board a ship that Nijinsky was due to travel on, and during the voyage Romola succeeded in engaging his affections.
Numerous speculations as to the true reason for their marriage have arisen, including the suggestion that Nijinsky saw Romola's title and supposed wealth as a means to escape Diaghilev's repression. This is unlikely: he was far too unsophisticated and innocent to have engineered a match for such a reason.
Romola has often been vilified as the woman who forced Nijinsky to abandon his artistry for
cabaret fare, her
pragmatic and
plebeian ways often jarring with his sensitive nature. This contributed largely to his decline into madness. In his diary, Nijinsky famously said of Romola
"My wife is an untwinkling star ..." They were married in
Buenos Aires: when the company returned to Europe, Diaghilev, in a jealous rage because he and Nijinsky were supposed to be lovers, fired them both. Nijinsky tried to create his own troupe, but its crucial London engagement failed due to administrative problems.
During
World War I Nijinsky, a Russian citizen, was interned in
Hungary. Diaghilev succeeded in getting him out for a
North American tour in
1916, during which he choreographed and danced the leading role in
Till Eulenspiegel. Signs of his
dementia praecox were becoming apparent to members of the company. He became afraid of other dancers and that a trap door would be left open.
Nijinsky had a nervous breakdown in
1919 and his career effectively ended. He was diagnosed with
schizophrenia and taken to
Switzerland by his wife where he was treated by psychiatrist
Eugene Bleuler. He spent the rest of his life in and out of psychiatric hospitals and asylums. His wife devoted her life entirely to his care, and whatever criticisms may be made of her, her devotion to him was complete. Nijinsky died in a
London clinic on
April 8, 1950 and was buried in London until
1953 when his body was moved to
Cimetière de Montmartre, Paris, France beside the graves of
Gaetano Vestris, Theophile Gautier, and
Emma Livry.
Nijinsky's
Diary was written during the six weeks he spent in Switzerland before being committed to the asylum. Obscure and confused, it is obviously the work of a schizophrenic, but in many ways reflects a loving nature, combining elements of autobiography with appeals for compassion toward the less fortunate, and for vegetarianism and animal rights. Nijinsky writes of the importance of feeling as opposed to reliance on reason and logic alone, and he denounces the practice of art criticism as being nothing more than a way for those who practice it to indulge their own egos rather than focusing on what the artist was trying to say. The diary also contains a bitter exposé of Nijinsky's relationship with Diaghilev.
As a dancer Nijinsky was clearly extraordinary in his time, though at the end of her life his great partner
Tamara Karsavina suggested that any young dancer out of the Royal Ballet School could now perform the technical feats with which he astonished his contemporaries. His main talent was probably not so much technical (
Stanislas Idzikowski could leap as high and as far) as in mime and characterisation; his major failing was that, being himself unable to form a satisfactory partnership with a woman, he was unsuccessful where such a relationship was important on-stage (in, say,
Giselle). In
epicene roles such as the god in
Le Dieu Bleu, the rose in
Spectre or the favourite slave in
Scheherezade he was unsurpassed. That he was an astonishing and influential artist is not in question.
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