Marie-Anne de Cupis de Camargo. Engraving with touches of colour by Garnier after the painting by Nicolas Lancret, mid-late 18th century.

In a wooded setting, a dancer and musicians. She stands on her right leg, the left raised to the side, with her arms outstretched and head turned to her left. The dancer wears a low, wide-necked dress with long 18th century bodice finishing in a point at centre front; the short sleeves are edged with rows of frills and on her left shoulder is a ribbon knot holding a cape which fastens at the back waist; across the bodice is a floral garland. The skirt reaches to lower calf; the hem is in wide scallops and down the dress and around the hem are floral garlands. On her feet are heeled shoes. Her hair is closely curled with flower decorations. The cloak, dress lining and some parts of the musicians are tinted red.
On the print are the following verses:
When the gay Dancer to the Consort moves, / Around her wait the Graces and ye Loves; / In pleasing Notes their transport they repeat, / and Eccho (sic) to the Musick of her Feet, - / With eager Wishes Lovers speak her Praise, / Form fancy'd Blifs as they with rapture gaze; / Beauty alone can fire, but joyn'd with Art / 'Tis sure to captivate each youthfull Heart.
Fidele aux loix de la Cadence / Je forme, au gré de l'art les plus haris; / Originale dans ma danse / Je puis le disputer aux Balons, aux Blondis.

Given by Dame Marie Rambert

Marie Camargo made her debut at the Paris Opera in 1726. She developed beautiful neat footwork and jumps, like entrechats, where the dancer jumps in the air and crosses the feet several times before landing. To show off these skills, she shortened her skirts to reveal feet and ankles. Other dancers soon followed.
Camargo wears fashionable high-heeled shoes, so her feet were not as flexible as later dancers’ who, at the end of the 18th century, adopted the newly fashionable heelless slippers that developed into today’s ballet shoes.
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.
The print is possibly a late copy.
Ballon and Blondi, referred to in one of the verses, were famous 18th century male dancers. It is sometimes said that it is from Jean Ballon (or Balon) that the ballet term signifying springiness or elasticity comes, but in fact there is no connection. Beauchamp Blondi was Camargo's teacher and also danced with her.

Sold Thos Bowles in St Pauls Churchyard & J Bowles at the Black Horse in Cornmarket

18th century dance costumes had long skirts that hid the dancer's feet. But Marie Camargo, who made her debut at the Paris Opera in 1726, developed beautiful neat footwork and jumps, like entrechats, where the dancer jumps in the air and crosses the feet several times before landing. To show off these skills, she shortened her skirts to reveal feet and ankles. Other dancers soon followed. Camargo wears fashionable high-heeled shoes, so her feet were not as flexible as later dancers' who, at the end of the 18th century, adopted the newly fashionable heelless slippers that developed into today's ballet shoes.
In the days before mass reproduction, engravings were one way that people could own images of popular personalities or copies of famous paintings. However, the painting of Camargo by Nicholas Lancret, on which this print is based, was so successful that he painted several versions; one is now in the Wallace Collection in London, one in the Hermitage in St Petersburg and one in the National Gallery of Art in Washington

E.4961-1968