Clarissa. Aquatint coloured by hand by Platt and Stadler after a drawing by Adam Buck, 1802.

On a terrace, with a column and against a cloudy blue-grey sky and green-tinted trees stands a girl in loose classically inspired dress. She stands on her left leg, her right foot trailing to the side. Her hair is cut short with a fringe; her head is tilted, looking towards the viewer. Her left arm is bent at shoulder height and holds a tambourine; her right arm is raised diagonally to strike the face of the tambourine with her fingers. Her short-sleeved, full length white dress is fitted to below the bust, fastening below her left breast. Her heeless slippers are coloured black.

Given by Dame Marie Rambert

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.

After the French Revolution, the heavy, cumbersome panniers of the 18th century were replaced by fashions based on classic Greek dress, with flowing, light, fabrics, caught up under the bust to give the characteristic 'Empire' line. This had a considerable effect on dance as it gave the female body equal freedom with the male dancer, who had been unencumbered with pannier and high wig for some years.
The pose of the figure in this print suggests that Clarissa is, perhaps, not a true dancer but one who strikes 'attitudes' or graceful poses rather than performing unbroken flowing movement.

E.4981-1968