Clara Webster as Agnes in The Beauty of Ghent as revived at Drury Lane in 1844 (The Star of the Ballet, No. 4). Published in London at Edward's Foreign Repository, mid 19th c.

A dancer stands on pointe on her right foot, facing 'upstage', her left foot raised in front, hands on hips, the torso bent back as she looks back towards left of the print. Her hair is severely dressed with a rose band to the back. Her pink ballet dress has an off-the shoulder fitted bodice, continuing into short sleeves, and a knee-length bell-shaped skirt; around the neck, sleeves, neck, hem and up side of the skirt are narrow black bands. On the ground are flowers.

Given by Dame Marie Rambert

Webster appeared in The Beauty of Ghent in 1844, when it was revived at Drury Lane in 1844. She danced Agnes, sister of the heroine Beatrix. This print may show her in her solo in the second scene as for her other solo number, a Cracovienne, she wore a saffron-coloured kirtle trimmed with fur and crimson boots.
The lithograph is no. 4 in the series The Star of the Ballet, of which at least 11 prints are known. They were published 1843-1844.
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.

Drawn and lithographed L'Enfant
Published Edwards' Foreign Repository 188 Fleet Street

Clara Webster as Agnes in The Beauty of Ghent as revived at Drury Lane in 1844 (The Star of the Ballet, No. 4). Published in London at Edward's Foreign Repository, mid 19th c.

In the 1844 revival of the ballet The Beauty of Ghent, Webster danced Agnes, sister of the heroine Beatrix. This print may show her in her solo in the second scene as for her other solo number, a Cracovienne, she wore a saffron-coloured kirtle trimmed with fur and crimson boots. One critic described her Cravocienne as 'saucy', which could equally be applied to this print, which has a definite 'come hither' feel. The flowers on the ground imply floral tributes thrown by her admirers.

Clara Webster was the white hope of British dance in the 1840s, the only English dancer who, it was felt, could become a rival to the great foreign ballerinas. It was not to be. In 1844, during a performance of The Revolt of the Harem, Clara's flimsy ballet skirts caught against one of the open gas jets that were used to light the stage in the days before electricity. She died three days later from her burns. Although there were ways of fireproofing fabrics, many dancers refused to use them as they stiffened the skirts and destroyed the ethereal illusion.

E.5065-1968