Fanny Cerrito in Ondine. Lithograph coloured by hand by C Graf after a drawing by Numa Blanc, 1843

A seashore with water lilies floating off shore, the sand with small rocks, shells and coral. A huge cockle shell frames a dancer standing on point with her left leg to the front, her right arm curved above her head, her left arm bent with hand at the waist; her head inclined and eyes looking at the viewer. The very low-cut pale-green tinted bodice is tightly fitted to the figure, supported on narrow bands on the upper arm; around the waist is a slightly pointed white belt from which falls the bell-shaped knee-length diaphanous skirt, with a shorter top skirt tinted green. Minute red and green flowers form a garland across her body and trim the skirt, with headband and arm bracelets to match.
Print area cut across at corners

Given by Dame Marie Rambert

Ondine role was created for the great ballerina Fanny Cerrito by Jules Perrot and was first seen in London at Her Majesty's Theatre in 1843.
The print records Cerrito's first entrance, as she posed in a cockle shell, rising up on a platform through the stage.
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.

In Jules Perrot's ballet, Ondine is a water nymph who falls in love with a mortal. The role was created for the great ballerina Fanny Cerrito and was first seen in London at Her Majesty's Theatre in 1843.
The print records Cerrito's first entrance, as she posed in a cockle shell, rising up on a platform through the stage. The slow sense of magic as she seemingly rose from the waves depended on the skill of the stage technicians; later in the scene, they had to fly Ondine from a rock back into the sea. The production was full of stage magic. One of the most brilliant effects was the scene where Matteo rows Ondine across the bay and her sister naiads appear beneath the water.

E.4992-1968