Mlle Laprairie in a Greek dance: L'Opéra No 2. Lithograph coloured by hand, 1844.

In the background, on a crag, is a Greek temple; across the foreground, a line of grasses and tall plants. In the foreground a female dancer jumps, her left leg pointing to the floor, her right leg raised behind; her upper body is in profile and her arms curve outwards and in her hands she holds castanets. Her head is turned to face the viewer and is thrown back, her eyes turned upwards. On her streaming hair is a fitted cap, trimmed with flowers, with a flowing tassel. Her chain and pendant fly upwards from her neck. Her low-necked bodice is concealed by a short-sleeved jacket, which is flying open at lower edges. The below-the-knee length skirt is tinted yellow at the upper edge and knotted around the hips is a broad patterned stole, tinted carmine and blue, its fringed ends flying out across the skirt.

Given by Dame Marie Rambert

The print is No 2 in a series entitled L'Opera. It was created in 1844, long after Laprairie's career, and is an 18th century dancer seen through the eyes of the Romantic era, not an accurate depiction. No 18th century dancer would have worn such a revealing, unstructured costume, so short a skirt, or flowing hair.
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.

Guérard could be either Charles-Jean, born 1790, or Eugène-Charles-François, 1821 to 1866.

Like a number of 18th century dancers, more is known about Mlle Laprairie's private life than her professional career. From 1767 she was engaged at the Paris Opera as Mlle Audinot, and embarked upon a life of promiscuous pleasure. In 1770 she changed her name to Laprairie and became mistress of Maximilan Gardel, greatest dancer of his day, before switching her favours to a French aristocrat. However, Gardel, a notorious womaniser, suddenly decided to settle down and married her, whereupon she lost all her seductive charms and turned into a jealous, bad-tempered and cantankerous housewife.
The print was made in 1844, long after Laprairie's career, and is a romanticised view of an 18th century dancer rather than an accurate depiction. No 18th century dancer would have worn such a revealing, unstructured costume, so short a skirt, or flowing hair.

E.4970-1968