Emma Livry in Herculanum (Les Danseuses de l'Opéra No. 10). Lithograph coloured by hand by Alophe, ca. 1860.

The dancer stands on her left leg, her right crossed in front with the foot pointed; her body is slightly turned to her right and her head is turned to look at the viewer; her arms are down with her hands clasped over her skirt. On her ringletted hair she wears a coronet of green grapes and around her neck are three graduated strings of red beads. Her white dress is fitted around the midriff and looser over the bust with loose short sleeves; across the body, from her right shoulder, is a broad sash in yellow with red stripes; around her waist, crossing at centre front, is a red band, with the tails continuing into the skirt. The two-tiered calf-length white skirt has a band of ivy leaves around the hem of the topskirt and smaller ivy leaves decorate around the neck and sleeve.

Given by Dame Marie Rambert

Herculanum was an opera by Félicien David, produced at the Paris Opera in 1858. Livry appeared as Erigone in the bacchanal in Act III, as suggested by the vine leaf decoration around the dress and wreath of grapes in her hair.
The print is No. 10 in the series Les Danseuses de l'Opera, published ca. 1860. There were 14 in total, all the work of Alophe.
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 over 130 items, 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. Although it is often referred to as the Rambert-Dukes collection of Romantic Ballet prints, it includes 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.

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.

Herculanum was an opera by Félicien David, produced at the Paris Opera in 1858. A feature of the operas at this time were the ballets, which were little more than an opportunity for the young men about town to ogle the ballet girls. Emma Livry, however, was destined to be one of the most promising dancers of her generation; tragically, in 1862, she died from burns received when her flimsy ballet dress caught fire during a rehearsal.
By the mid-19th century, a recognisable 'ballet' costume had evolved - a low-cut pointed bodice, or a little blouse worn under a laced bodice, and a bell-shaped, knee-length skirt formed of tiers of tarlatan with a diaphanous top layer. To this were added various details indicating indicate the character, status or nationality of the particular role. Here, vine leaves around the dress and wreath of grapes in her hair indicate that Livry is appearing in a bacchanal.

E.5030-1968