Operatical Reform, or La Danse à l'eveque. Etching, 1798.

A stage, with musical instruments and a score to the lower edge as though in the orchestra pit; the stage is set with a view of mountains and side wings of trees and, to the front, drapes of curtains; to either side of the front stage is a chandelier and a column with a plinth on which stands, to the left, a satyr, holding a mask and with a finger to his lips and, to the right, an apprehensive figure in a shift covering her breast and crotc, copying the pose of the Venus de Medici.
Centre stage stand three female dancers, linked by a floral garland, all wearing high-waisted, knee-length diaphanous dresses with aprons, which reveal their lack of undergarments; the figures left and centre are pretty young girls; they face the viewer while the figure on the right has her back turned to the other two, looking back over her shoulder at the others, her long face set in a grim expression.
Written on paper mount in pencil: 'Madamoiselle Parisot M Rosiere
'Tis hard for such new fangled orthodox rules, / That our OPERA-Troop, should be blam'd / Since like our first parents, they only, poor fools, Danc'd Naked, & were not afham'd!' Morning Herald.'

Given by Dame Marie Rambert

The figure on the right is clearly Charles Didelot’s wife Mme Rose, whose sharp features figure in several satires of the 1790s. Another figure may be Mlle Parisot; although she is usually shown with one breast uncovered.
The satire refers to Bishop Barrington’s attack on the French dancers in the House of Lords during the reading of a divorce bill. He protested they were sent by France to undermine British morality ‘by the allurement of the most indecent attitudes, and most wanton theatrical exhibitions ….’ He attributed the increase in divorce to such displays and asked for the King to suppress these ‘indecent spectacles.’ Many people criticised the skimpy and diaphanous costumes worn by the French dancers at this time.
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.

14 March 1798 H Humphrey St James's Street

The figure on the right is clearly Charles Didelot's wife Mme Rose, whose sharp features figure in several satirical prints of the 1790s. Another figure is identified by a pencilled note on the mount as Parisot; although she is usually shown with one breast uncovered; however she does look very like prints of the plumply pretty Parisot. The figure on the right plinth copies the pose of the Venus de Medici.
The satire refers to Bishop Barrington's attack on the French dancers in the House of Lords during the reading of a divorce bill. He protested they were sent by France to undermine British morality 'by the allurement of the most indecent attitudes, and most wanton theatrical exhibitions ….' He attributed the increase in divorce to such displays and asked for the King to suppress these 'indecent spectacles.' Many people criticised the skimpy and diaphanous costumes worn by the French dancers at this time.

E.4972-1968