Mlle Desmatins dancing at the Paris Opera. Engraving late 17th century

On a terrace, in a formal garden, stands a female figure dressed in 18th century stage costume, facing front, looking at the viewer. She stands on her right leg, her left extended to the side with her right arm bent, the hand turned inwards, her left held out, with hand turned down and thumb and index finger touching. She wears a 'mob cap' trimmed with ribbon and feathers and around her neck a large pearl necklace. The knee-length coat has full-length, very wide bell sleeves and is fastened with a 'jewelled' bar and large decorative buttons at neck and from centre bust across to proper left waist, continuing down to the asymmetrically cut proper right front to the hem. The fronts, sleeves and hem are decorated with elaborate stylized foliage and scroll patterns. Her heavily heeled shoes are fastened with ribbons.

Given by Dame Marie Rambert

Mlle Desmatins started life as a dish-washer in Paris tavern. In 1682, she appeared as a dancer at the Paris Opera before becoming a singer. Her career was cut short when she lost her voice after going on a horrendous diet which combined fasting and drinking vinegar. She died in 1705.
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.

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

Mlle Desmatins started life as a dish-washer in Paris tavern. In 1682, she appeared as a dancer at the Paris Opera before becoming a singer. Her career was cut short when she lost her voice after going on a horrendous diet which combined fasting and drinking vinegar. She died in 1705.
Dematins is wearing a typically elaborate late 17th century stage costume, which must have been very heavy and difficult to wear while singing or dancing. Such costumes restricted the range of movement, although less than might be thought, but dancers did not aim for the athletic, contorted movements of contemporary dance. They evolved a graceful, elegant style of movement suited to their time and the classical characters they played.

E.4960-1968