The print dates from 1804 and shows André Deshayes and James Harvey D'Egville in d'Egville's ballet Achille et Déidamie. They are portraying the heroes Achilles and Ulysses from the classical Greek legends The Iliad and the Odyssey; in the background are symbols of their characters - to the left is Achilles's shield, to the right Ulysses's bow, which he alone could draw.
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.
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.
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 Cebnt 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
Place of Origin
London, England (published)
Date
1804 (published)
Artist/maker
Villiers Huët (artist)
Anthony Cardon, born 1772 - died 1813 (publisher)
Materials and Techniques
Lithograph coloured by hand
Dimensions
Height: 548 mm, Width: 412 mm
Object history note
The print shows André Deshayes as Achilles and James Harvey D’Egville as Ulysses in d’Egville’s ballet Achille et Déidamie at 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 possiblities 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 centuy 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.
Descriptive line
André Deshayes and James Harvey D'Egville in Achille et Déidamie. Lithograph coloured by hand by Villiers Huët, 1804.
Exhibition History
Dame Marie Rambert collection of ballet prints (Victoria and Albert Museum 07/03/1968-07/03/1968)
Spotlight Four Centuries of Ballet Costume (Victoria and Albert Museum 08/04/1981-26/07/1981)
Production Note
Printed as: Anthony Cardon
Materials
Paper; Watercolour; Lithographic ink
Techniques
Lithography; Hand-colouring
Categories
Prints; Entertainment & Leisure
Collection code
T&P
