Mlle Vibon in Vert-Vert (Les Danseuses de l'Opéra, No. 13). Lithograph coloured by hand Alophe, ca.1860.

The dancer stands on her right leg with the foot turned to her right, the left leg turned to the viewer; her right hand is raised to her cravat and under her left arm she holds a tricorne hat. Her head is turned to look at the viewer. She wears a blue 18th century skirted coat, with large buttoned cuffs, the right side of the skirt swept back over a sword hilt; the blue waistcoat is fastened from waist to thigh and the blue breeches fasten below the knee. At her neck is a long white cravat and the full white sleeves are gathered at the wrist to fall as a frill over the hand. From her left shoulder fall blue ribbons.

Given by Dame Marie Rambert

The print is No. 13 in the series Les Danseuses de l'Opera, published ca. 1860. There were 14 in total, all the work of Alophe.
Mlle Vibon was a minor dancer at the Paris Opera in the 1850s. Vert-Vert, set in 18th century France, was choreographed by Joseph Mazilier. It may be that Vibon played one of the pages, who seem to have been performed by girls.
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: By the 1860s, most male roles in ballets in Paris and later in London were played by girls en travesti. This is an indication of the influence of the Romantic ballet, which had centered on the ballerina and pushed the male dancer into a supporting role.

Mlle Vibon was a minor dancer at the Paris Opera in the 1850s. Vert-Vert, set in 18th century France, was choreographed by Joseph Mazilier. It may be that Vibon played one of the pages, who seem to have been performed by girls. By the 1860s, most male roles in ballets in Paris and later in London were played by girls en travesti (dressed as men). This is an indication of the influence of the Romantic ballet, which had centered on the ballerina and pushed the male dancer into a supporting role.
By 1860, photography had become a viable commercial medium, and several of the prints in the series Les Danseuses de l’Opera seem to be copies of photographs. Maybe this was because most photographs were quite small and, of course, sepia toned; translated into lithographs, they could be larger and then hand coloured, making them more suitable for display.

E.5064-1968