Carolina Rosati in Le Corsaire (Les Danseuses de l'Opéra, No. 2). Lithograph coloured by hand by Alophe, ca.1860.

A dancer stands on her left leg, the foot turned outwards, her right leg crossed in front with pointed foot resting on the floor. Her body faces the viewer, with her head slightly turned and inclined to her right, her eyes looking out at the viewer. Her left arm is held across the body and her right elbow rests on her left hand, with her right index finger held against her right cheek. Her hair is dressed with coiled plaits over her ears, her right side decorated with flowers and a small round cap fixed to her left, trimmed with 'gold' and with two 'gold' tassels. She wears a dark green jacket, edged with gold, fitted to the waist and onto the hips, the full-length wide, straight sleeves open to the elbow and edged with gold; at centre front is a white low-necked blouse set with horizontal bands of pale red and white beads. The below-the-knee bell-shaped white skirt has an elaborate jewelled belt fixed at lower hip height.

Given by Dame Marie Rambert

The lithograph shows Carolina Rosati in Joseph Mazilier's ballet Le Corsaire, produced at the Paris Opera in 1856. Rosati was one of the great dramatic dancers of the mid 19th century, appearing in Paris, London and St Petersburg.
The print is No. 2 in the series, Les Danseuses de l'Opera, published ca. 1860. There were 14 in total, all the work of Alophe.
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.

By 1860, photography had become a viable commercial medium, and several of the prints in the series Les Danseuses de l'Opera seem to be copies of photographs. Maybe this was because most photographs were quite small and, of course, sepia toned; translated into lithographs, they could be larger and then hand coloured, making them more suitable for display.

Carolina Rosati was one of the great dramatic dancers of the mid 19th century, appearing in Paris, London and St Petersburg. Her career proves that talent alone is no guarantee of immortality; a performer also needs the luck to be born at the right time. As her talents matured in the 1850s, ballet was no longer as popular nor as fashionable as it had been in the great days of Taglioni, Elssler and Grisi in the previous decade. So, while they are remembered and immortalised in much sought-after lithographs, Rosati is almost forgotten, although she was, at the time, the highest paid dancer ever at the Paris Opera.
Rosati excelled in quick, precise movements, a difficult style to capture in a still image, but prints give some idea of her considerable spirit and vivacious elegance. The print shows her as Médora, lover of the pirate Conrad, in the ballet Le Corsair, based on Byron's poem. Her costume, with the gold tassels and jewelled belt, reflects the ballet's piratical theme.

E.5042-1968