Carlotta Grisi in The Peri. Lithograph coloured by hand, 1843

To the back, a landscape with trees to either side, to the middle-ground a river with a small waterfall; in the foreground, flowers and foliage flank the river bank and across the immediate foreground are 'puffs' of grey cloud. On the far river bank are lines of dancers. The central figure is a dancer, suspended in mid-air across the print from right to left, her left leg stretched down with her right raised behind; her body is facing towards her left, her arms held out, her eyes looking towards a figure outside the print area. On her severely dressed hair she wears a tiara of stars. Her dress has a small blue bodice fitted over the bust with deep V neck and vestigial sleeves, edged with 'jewels'. Down her midriff are lines of 'jewels' meeting a jewelled belt in a pointed 'jewelled' motif at the waist. The bell-shaped, knee-length skirt is of white diaphanous fabric.
The top edge of the print area is domed.

Given by Dame Marie Rambert

La Péri was a ballet choreographed by Jules Perrot for his protegée, Carlotta Grisi. It was first seen in Paris in 1843. Later that year, Eugène Coralli revived it in London, again with Grisi in the title role.
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: Although many prints of the period have an indication of stage setting, this is unusual in recreating a clear picture of the whole stage and performers, not just the principals.

Although many prints of the period have an indication of stage setting, this is unusual in recreating a clear picture of the whole stage and performers, not just the principals.
The large souvenir prints of the Romantic ballet, issued in the 1830s and 1840s, are among the most evocative images of dance in the 19th century. Lithography, with its soft quality, enhanced by the delicate yet rich hand-colouring, was ideally suited to the subject - the ballerinas who dominated ballet in the mid-century and the romanticised settings in which they performed; style and subject were perfectly matched. The lithographs produced in London are notable for capturing the personality and style of individual performers in a theatrical setting. They are a fitting tribute to one of ballet's richest periods.
Before the development of colour printing, the basic black and white prints were hand coloured. There is often considerable variation from one print to another, both in colour and quality of the work. The most important souvenir prints, such as this one, would only have been sent out to the best colourists, and it is often very difficult to tell the best hand colouring from early colour printing. In the days before photography, such lithographs were expensive souvenirs, bought by the individual dancer's admirers.

In Persian Mythology, a péri was superhuman being endowed with grace and beauty. In ballet of the 1840s, she was, like the sylphs and nymphs, an unattainable spirit, a symbol of escape from the prosaic and mundane world. The costume, with its short sleeves, jewelled chains and belts, looks more like a balleticised version of Indian costume than Persian, but the intention was to evoke exotic, far-away places, rather than a realistic recreation.
The print records the scene of the hero's opium-induced dream, when Lelia, the péri, dances before him. As the dream is about to end, Grisi's leapt from a cloud into the arms of her lover. It was much admired as not being just a stunt, but expressive; as one commentator explained, 'more like a dove's feather drifting in the air than a human body hurtling from a platform.' However, if she ever mistimed it, or did not perform it to full effect, the Parisian public would make her repeat it until they were satisfied. It is not difficult to imagine the skill needed by her partner to catch her and not stagger under the force of her dead weight.
Although many prints of the period have an indication of stage setting, this is unusual in recreating a clear picture of the whole stage and performers, not just the principals.

E.5019-1968