Julie Cassegrain in Marco Spada (Les Danseuses de l'Opéra, No. 8). Lithograph coloured by hand, by Alophe ca. 1860

The dancer stands on her left leg, her right leg crossed over in front with the foot pointed. Her head is inclined and her arms are held in front of the body, with the fingers interlaced. The hair is loosely dressed from the central parting, and is looped with pearls; from the back, down her left side, falls a long broad pink ribbon. The white blouse off-the-shoulder blouse is cut straight across front and shoulders, with short white sleeves, puffed into fitted black sleeves which finish at the wrist in a small white puff; the black bodice has a small white turned back collar and front lacing, edged in pink; pink ribbons fit behind the lacing and up into the blouse. The knee-length bell skirt is tinted pink with a black band around the hem; from under the bodice is fixed a white apron decorated with two horizontal floral bands edged in pink ribbon. Top right hand corner printed: No 8

Given by Dame Marie Rambert

The print is no. 8 in the series, Les Danseuses de l'Opera, published ca. 1860. There were 14 in total, all the work of Alophe.
The print shows the minor soloist, Julie Cassegrain, in the ballet Marco Spada, which was performed at the Paris Opera in 1857. It was a splendid piece of French Second Empire nonsense, featuring bandits, kidnapped heroines, lovers' misunderstandings, a rejected suitor who in a fit of pique agrees to marry someone he doesn't love, and a bandit chief's daughter, freed to marry her lover when it transpires she was adopted. The subject was chosen because it provided two strong female roles for the Paris Opera Ballet's current stars, Carolina Rosati and Amalia Ferraris.
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 shows the dancer in the ballet Marco Spada, which was performed at the Paris Opera in 1857. It was a splendid piece of French Second Empire nonsense, featuring bandits, kidnapped heroines, lovers' misunderstandings, a rejected suitor who in a fit of pique agrees to marry someone he doesn't love, and a bandit chief's daughter, freed to marry her lover when it transpires she was adopted. The subject was chosen because it provided two strong female roles for the Paris Opera Ballet's current stars, Carolina Rosati and Amalia Ferraris.
Such a complex story was almost impossible to convey in dance. Most memorable was the scene where the whole stage with thirty people, was raised, revealing an underground cavern beneath. It was so dangerous that, after a series of accidents, the dancers started carrying charms to ward off evil influences.
Today, Marco Spada is remembered from prints of minor soloists, including Julie Cassegrain, who were shown in costumes from the ballet. Her dress follows what has become a conventional dancer's costume - fitted bodice - here as a blouse and laced bodice - and bell-shaped skirt.

E.4983-1968