Physical description

Two dancers with arms around each other's waists, the other hand on the hip, wearing square caps and fur trimmed costumes. Lithograph second quarter 19th century
Two dancers stand side by side, each on tiptoe on one foot, the other raised; their arms are around each other's waist, and the outer arms are on their hips. They both wear square, flat-crowned caps with decorated with a plume over 'sausage' curled hair and heeled ankle boots trimmed with fur. One wears a wide-square-necked, belted coat-dress with full length sleeves and large open oversleeves with a calf-length skirt; the neckline, sleeve edgings, hem and around the shoulders and down the fronts are trimmed with fur. The other wears a knee-length belted coat with full sleeves and hanging oversleeves, all edges trimmed with fur; at the neck is a white shirt with stand-up collar.

Place of Origin

Germany (made)

Date

second quarter 19th century (made)

Artist/maker

Gleich, Eduard (artist)
Müller, G. Eduard (lithographer)

Materials and Techniques

Lithograph

Dimensions

Height: 480 mm right hand side, Width: 387 mm

Object history note

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.

Descriptive line

Mme Desargus-Lemière and Amalia Galster in the pas de deux polonais. Lithograph by G Eduard Müller after a drawing by Eduard Gleich, second quarter 19th century.

Production Note

Lithograph by G Eduard Müller - no info

Materials

Lithographic ink; Paper

Techniques

Lithography

Categories

Prints; Entertainment & Leisure

Collection

Theatre and Performance Collection