M. Deshayes et M. d'Egville, dans le Ballet Pantomime d'Achille et Deidamie
Print
1804 (published)
1804 (published)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
The print dates from 1804 and shows André Jean-Jacques Deshayes and James Harvey D'Egville in d'Egville's ballet Achille et Déidamie. They are portraying Achilles and his tutor Chiron from the classical Greek legends. In the background are symbols of their characters - to the left is Achilles's shield, to the right Chiron's bow.
The pose foreshadows a major advance in dance technique. In the 18th century, dancers danced alongside each other, distanced by their hooped, stiff, formal costumes. After the French Revolution of 1789, the new fashion was for Greek draperies for the woman and jackets and breeches for the men. This allowed the body much more freedom of movement and dancers were now able to dance together - which came to mean the man standing behind the woman to lift and support her. Although this is a pas de deux between two men, it does give an idea of the lifts and more acrobatic techniques that were coming into dance at this time. There is, however, some artistic licence in the print, which suggests that Achilles is somehow balancing on Chinon's hip, with his foot disappearing from view. A pen and ink sketch held by the V&A (S.1993-1996), identified as a preliminary drawing for the print, shows Achilles's right foot placed on Chinon's thigh in a far more natural position.
18th century classical heroes would have worn a conventional costume called the tonnelet, a stiffened skirt which to our eyes looks like a ballet tutu, and acrobatic lifts like this would have been impossible. The printmaker has however made changes - the V&A also holds a preliminary sketch for this
D'Egville, an Englishman, was the ballet-master of London's King's Theatre from 1799 to 1809. He also started an Academy of Dancing to train English soloists, prompted by the difficulty of bringing over French dancers during the Napoleonic Wars. Deshayes, a French dancer who had managed to reach England, appeared on the London stage from 1800 until 1842.
The pose foreshadows a major advance in dance technique. In the 18th century, dancers danced alongside each other, distanced by their hooped, stiff, formal costumes. After the French Revolution of 1789, the new fashion was for Greek draperies for the woman and jackets and breeches for the men. This allowed the body much more freedom of movement and dancers were now able to dance together - which came to mean the man standing behind the woman to lift and support her. Although this is a pas de deux between two men, it does give an idea of the lifts and more acrobatic techniques that were coming into dance at this time. There is, however, some artistic licence in the print, which suggests that Achilles is somehow balancing on Chinon's hip, with his foot disappearing from view. A pen and ink sketch held by the V&A (S.1993-1996), identified as a preliminary drawing for the print, shows Achilles's right foot placed on Chinon's thigh in a far more natural position.
18th century classical heroes would have worn a conventional costume called the tonnelet, a stiffened skirt which to our eyes looks like a ballet tutu, and acrobatic lifts like this would have been impossible. The printmaker has however made changes - the V&A also holds a preliminary sketch for this
D'Egville, an Englishman, was the ballet-master of London's King's Theatre from 1799 to 1809. He also started an Academy of Dancing to train English soloists, prompted by the difficulty of bringing over French dancers during the Napoleonic Wars. Deshayes, a French dancer who had managed to reach England, appeared on the London stage from 1800 until 1842.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | M. Deshayes et M. d'Egville, dans le Ballet Pantomime d'Achille et Deidamie (assigned by artist) |
| Materials and techniques | Etching and aquatint coloured by hand |
| Brief description | André Deshayes and James Harvey D'Egville in Achille et Déidamie. Etching and aquatint coloured by hand, Villiers Huët, 1804 |
| Physical description | A bearded man stands with legs braced and arms above his head supporting a young man in arabesque at hip height. The bearded man wears a black thigh-length one-shoulder tunic with a leopardskin, lined in red, over his left shoulder. The young man has his curled hair bound with a ribbon, and wears a short-sleeved, yellow thigh-length tunic with green scroll and stylized foliage decoration around sleeves and hem. They stand in a landscape, with a large tree to the right on which is stretched a lionskin and, on the ground, a bow and quiver of arrows; at the left side a shield, spear and lyre. Printed: 'Chef plein de Goût du Spectacle magique / Ou les Beaux vers, la Danse et la musique / De Cent plaisirs font un plaisir unique / Sous vos auspices Genereux. / Permittez que mon Art Séfforce / De presenter encore aux regards curieux / Deux Artistes Ingeneux / Don't les talents divers offrent l'accord Hereux / De la Grace unie a la force' Dedié à / Francis Gold Esq. / Par son tres humble / et obeissant Serviteur, Villiers Hüet |
| Dimensions |
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| Credit line | Given by Dame Marie Rambert |
| Object history | The print shows André Jean-Jacques Deshayes as Achilles and James Harvey D’Egville as Chiron in d’Egville’s ballet Achille et Déidamie at the King’s Theatre, 1804. The print is part of the collection of dance prints amassed by Marie Rambert and her husband, Ashley Dukes in the first half of the 20th century. Eventually numbering 145 items, some of which had belonged to the ballerina Anna Pavlova, it was one of the first and most important specialist collections in private hands. Rambert bought the first print as a wedding present but could not bear to give it away. As the collection grew, it was displayed in the bar of the Mercury Theatre, the headquarters of Ballet Rambert, but in 1968, Rambert gave the collection to the Victoria and Albert Museum; seven duplicates were returned to Rambert, but these are catalogued in Ivor Guest's A Gallery of Romantic Ballet, which was published before the collection came to the V&A. Although often referred to as a collection of Romantic Ballet prints, there are also important engravings of 17th and 18th century performers, as well as lithographs from the later 19th century, by which time the great days of the ballet in London and Paris were over. Historical significance: This print is indicative of the increased possibilities in ballet technique with the disappearance of the heavy, formal costumes of the 18th century. As women's fashions adopted the looser, more fluid Greek-drapery-inspired dress, so dancers, freed from the pannier, could now dance side by side. For the men, this meant they could dance alongside or behind their partners and lift and support them; in the 18th century, men had been the great dance stars, but throughout the 19th century they dwindled into mere porteurs and presenters of the ballerina. Although this is a pas de deux between two men, it does give an idea of the lifts and more acrobatic techniques that were coming into dance at this time. From such moves would evolve the modern pas de deux. |
| Production | Printed as: Anthony Cardon |
| Summary | The print dates from 1804 and shows André Jean-Jacques Deshayes and James Harvey D'Egville in d'Egville's ballet Achille et Déidamie. They are portraying Achilles and his tutor Chiron from the classical Greek legends. In the background are symbols of their characters - to the left is Achilles's shield, to the right Chiron's bow. The pose foreshadows a major advance in dance technique. In the 18th century, dancers danced alongside each other, distanced by their hooped, stiff, formal costumes. After the French Revolution of 1789, the new fashion was for Greek draperies for the woman and jackets and breeches for the men. This allowed the body much more freedom of movement and dancers were now able to dance together - which came to mean the man standing behind the woman to lift and support her. Although this is a pas de deux between two men, it does give an idea of the lifts and more acrobatic techniques that were coming into dance at this time. There is, however, some artistic licence in the print, which suggests that Achilles is somehow balancing on Chinon's hip, with his foot disappearing from view. A pen and ink sketch held by the V&A (S.1993-1996), identified as a preliminary drawing for the print, shows Achilles's right foot placed on Chinon's thigh in a far more natural position. 18th century classical heroes would have worn a conventional costume called the tonnelet, a stiffened skirt which to our eyes looks like a ballet tutu, and acrobatic lifts like this would have been impossible. The printmaker has however made changes - the V&A also holds a preliminary sketch for this D'Egville, an Englishman, was the ballet-master of London's King's Theatre from 1799 to 1809. He also started an Academy of Dancing to train English soloists, prompted by the difficulty of bringing over French dancers during the Napoleonic Wars. Deshayes, a French dancer who had managed to reach England, appeared on the London stage from 1800 until 1842. |
| Bibliographic reference | Strong, Roy, Ivor Guest, Richard Buckle, Sarah C. Woodcock and Philip Dyer, Spotlight: four centuries of ballet costume, a tribute to the Royal Ballet, London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1981. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | E.4973-1968 |
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| Record created | August 31, 2004 |
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