Flora Fabbri dancing La Castigliana in the ballet The Offspring of Flowers. Colour lithograph by J Brandard, 1840s.

A female dancer stands on pointe, her right hand held out and her left curved towards her body, her head turned to look across her left shoulder; in her hands she holds castanets. Her severely dressed hair is pulled into a net at the back with a hanging sprig of flower buds to one side. She wears a necklace. Her off-the-shoulder red bodice has a wide V neckline and a forms a point at the waist; over the full length sleeves at the upper arm are bold epaulettes. Down the front of the bodice is a blue floral spray, dividing into arms over either bust; around the neck, waist and down the sleeves are narrow blue bands; at the cuffs are three blue bands finishing in small blue tassels; the epaulettes are edged and latticed with blue bands, finishing in small blue tassels at the edge. The diaphanous white skirt falls to the knee with a shorter overskirt decorated with vertical bands formed of narrow alternating black and white lines. In the background to the left is part of a theatrical curtain and a classical column; to the right is an elaborate plinth supporting a short column on which is inscribed: 'to the most graceful', and crowned with a laurel wreath.

Given by Dame Marie Rambert

La Castigliana was danced by Fabbri in the character of Ersilie (the Offspring of Flowers) in the ballet The Offspring of Flowers, arranged by M Bretin and produced at Drury Lane on 3 October 1846.
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.

Historical significance: The lithograph is an early example of colour printing, recording Fabbri in a role that she only danced in London in 1846. Unless the print is a much later copy, the only other possible dating is 1848, when Fabbri appeared in a divertissement (no details given) at Covent Garden.

Printed 'in colours' by M & N Hanhart

Fabbri danced La Castigliana in the ballet The Offspring of Flowers in London in 1846. It is impossible to tell from the print that her character, Ersilie, was a flower maiden, one of those supernatural beauties with whom mortals fell in love in the ballet of the 1840s. It is irrelevant to ask why a flower maiden should perform a Spanish dance based on the bolero - Spanish dancing was extremely popular at the time and a surefire success with audiences. Indeed, according to one critic, Fabbri's performance 'full of character and graceful attitudes … was loudly applauded and encored.'
By the end of the 1840s, the ballerina had evolved an iconic look which is still the popular image of the ballet dancer today - sleeked-down hair, pointed, low-necked bodice, or a laced bodice over a small blouse, and knee or calf-length bell-shaped skirt. While keeping to these broad outlines, Fabbri's costume is adapted with full length sleeves and epaulettes to indicate a Spanish dress.

E.5007-1968