Carlotta Grisi, / in the / Ballet of the Peri.
Print
1 January 1844 (published)
1 January 1844 (published)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
La Péri was a ballet written by Theophile Gautier and choreographed by Jules Perrot for his protegée, Carlotta Grisi. It was first seen in Paris in 1843. Later that year, Eugène Coralli revived it in London, again with Grisi in the title role.
La Péri of the title is a fairy who assumes human form to test a man who has fallen in love with her after she appears to him in a dream. In Persian mythology, a péri was a superhuman being endowed with grace and beauty. In ballet of the 1840s, she was, like the sylphs and nymphs, an unattainable spirit, a symbol of escape from the prosaic and mundane world. The costume, with its short sleeves, jewelled chains and belts, looks more like a balleticised version of Indian costume than Persian, but the intention was to evoke exotic, far-away places, rather than a realistic recreation.
Theophile Gautier wrote La Péri for the great ballerina Carlotta Grisi whom he adored. Like Giselle, which he also wrote for her, the role of the Péri encapsulated the two aspects of the Romantic ballet, the human girl and the unattainable spirit. Unattainable spirits were very popular in the Romantic era, the ultimate putting of a woman on a pedestal.
La Péri of the title is a fairy who assumes human form to test a man who has fallen in love with her after she appears to him in a dream. In Persian mythology, a péri was a superhuman being endowed with grace and beauty. In ballet of the 1840s, she was, like the sylphs and nymphs, an unattainable spirit, a symbol of escape from the prosaic and mundane world. The costume, with its short sleeves, jewelled chains and belts, looks more like a balleticised version of Indian costume than Persian, but the intention was to evoke exotic, far-away places, rather than a realistic recreation.
Theophile Gautier wrote La Péri for the great ballerina Carlotta Grisi whom he adored. Like Giselle, which he also wrote for her, the role of the Péri encapsulated the two aspects of the Romantic ballet, the human girl and the unattainable spirit. Unattainable spirits were very popular in the Romantic era, the ultimate putting of a woman on a pedestal.
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Carlotta Grisi, / in the / Ballet of the Peri. (assigned by artist) |
| Materials and techniques | Tinted lithograph coloured by hand |
| Brief description | Carlotta Grisi in The Peri. Tinted lithograph coloured by hand, drawn by John Brandard, and published by Fores, 1 January 1844 |
| Physical description | Lithograph showing a room with, to either side, columns through which can be seen a lake, trees and mountains; standing 'outside' can be seen girls in ballet dress. In the centre foreground a dancer jumps, her legs stretched on the diagonal to her left, her arms angled above her head. On her severely dressed hair she wears a tiara of stars. Her dress has a small blue bodice fitted over the bust with a deep V neck and vestigial sleeves, edged with 'jewels'. Down her midriff are lines of 'jewels' meeting a jewelled belt in a pointed 'jewelled' motif at the waist. The bell-shaped, knee-length skirt is formed of two tiers of white diaphanous fabric. The print area is cut across the corners. |
| Dimensions |
|
| Credit line | Gabrielle Enthoven Collection |
| Historical context | The large souvenir prints of the Romantic ballet, issued in the 1830s and 1840s, are among the most evocative images of dance in the 19th century. Lithography, with its soft quality, enhanced by the delicate yet rich hand-colouring, was ideally suited to the subject - the ballerinas who dominated ballet in the mid-century and the romanticised settings in which they performed; style and subject were perfectly matched. The lithographs produced in London are notable for capturing the personality and style of individual performers in a theatrical setting. They are a fitting tribute to one of ballet's richest periods. Before the development of colour printing, the basic black and white prints were hand coloured. There is often considerable variation from one print to another, both in colour and quality of the work. The most important souvenir prints, such as this one, would only have been sent out to the best colourists, and it is often very difficult to tell the best hand colouring from early colour printing. In the days before photography, such lithographs were expensive souvenirs, bought by the individual dancer's admirers. |
| Summary | La Péri was a ballet written by Theophile Gautier and choreographed by Jules Perrot for his protegée, Carlotta Grisi. It was first seen in Paris in 1843. Later that year, Eugène Coralli revived it in London, again with Grisi in the title role. La Péri of the title is a fairy who assumes human form to test a man who has fallen in love with her after she appears to him in a dream. In Persian mythology, a péri was a superhuman being endowed with grace and beauty. In ballet of the 1840s, she was, like the sylphs and nymphs, an unattainable spirit, a symbol of escape from the prosaic and mundane world. The costume, with its short sleeves, jewelled chains and belts, looks more like a balleticised version of Indian costume than Persian, but the intention was to evoke exotic, far-away places, rather than a realistic recreation. Theophile Gautier wrote La Péri for the great ballerina Carlotta Grisi whom he adored. Like Giselle, which he also wrote for her, the role of the Péri encapsulated the two aspects of the Romantic ballet, the human girl and the unattainable spirit. Unattainable spirits were very popular in the Romantic era, the ultimate putting of a woman on a pedestal. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | S.662-2011 |
About this object record
Explore the Collections contains over a million catalogue records, and over half a million images. It is a working database that includes information compiled over the life of the museum. Some of our records may contain offensive and discriminatory language, or reflect outdated ideas, practice and analysis. We are committed to addressing these issues, and to review and update our records accordingly.
You can write to us to suggest improvements to the record.
Suggest feedback
You can write to us to suggest improvements to the record.
Suggest feedback
| Record created | March 12, 2012 |
| Record URL |
Download as: JSONIIIF Manifest
