Marie-Thérèse de Subligny dancing at the Paris Opera. Engraving early 18th century.

In a panelled room with a column and window through which can be seen trees, stands a female figure wearing 18th century stage costume. Her arms are outstretched at shoulder height, her left hand turned down and her right curved upwards; her head is slightly tilted, her eyes looking down past her left arm. She wears a small cocked hat from which rises an 'umbrella' of feathers with a central upstanding plume. Her curled hair ends in two long twisted plaits, the proper left falling to the front and the proper right down her back. The long, fitted pointed bodice has a small square neck and a jewelled stomacher, with short frilled sleeves, the proper left fuller and the proper right with a long falling 'cuff'. The overskirt is cut on an upward curve to the front, the proper left edge being turned back, and the short train falling to the floor proper left. The costume and full-length petticoat are elaborately decorated with a formal flower and scroll pattern, set with 'jewels' and framed in 'cartouches' on the petticoat.

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.
Theatre Museum costume S.1460/A-1982 is a 20th century reworking of the costume depicted in this print.
In 1912, Adeline Genée produced La Danse, a ballet tracing the history of dance from the 18th to 20th century, designed by Wilhelm. The first scene featured the dancer Françoise Prévost; as few images of her exist, Wilhelm's costume follows this print, translating it into contemporary fabrics and shape.

Printed as: A Paris chez J Mariette rue St Jacques aux Colonnes d'Hercule

Marie-Thérèse de Subligny was one of the first professional female dancers at the Paris Opera in the 1680s. In 1700 when she danced in London, she was the first professional dancer to be seen on the English stage.
Her elaborate costume, is obviously heavy and the long skirt, boned bodice, and the heavy flounces on the sleeves would have seriously restricted her movements. This indicates how women danced at this time, the arms slow and graceful, little flexibility in the torso, no spectacular jumps and a skirt that would have hidden intricate footwork. The male dancers could perform much more spectacular steps, jumps and turns in their less cumbersome costumes and it was they, not the women, were the first ballet stars.

E.4956-1968