Marie Taglioni in L'Ombre
Print
ca. 1840 (made)
ca. 1840 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
L'Ombre (The Shadow) was originally choreographed by Filippo Taglioni for his daughter Marie, greatest of all 19th century ballerinas. It was first danced by her at the Bolshoi in St Petersburg in 1839, then revived in a two-act version at Her Majesty's Theatre in London in 1840. Its story was even more preposterous than most Romantic ballets - the heroine, murdered with a poisoned bouquet, haunts her former lover to prevent him marrying another. The plot was nothing more than excuse for Taglioni to display her ethereal lightness and elevation and the ballet was not a particular success.
What made it worth recording was the sequence where Taglioni sprang from rose bush to rose bush, alighting on pointe in the centre of each. Hidden in each rose was a metal plate, about 8cm in diameter, set on springs to absorb her landing and provide a lift off as she jumped to the next. Few other dancers could have achieved such precision and balance and Taglioni always considered it to be one of her most amazing technical feats.
Many Romantic ballet prints record dancers drifting on clouds, flying through the air or posed on flowers, all of which were, with the aid of technology, introduced into ballets to heighten the impression of ethereality and otherworldliness.
What made it worth recording was the sequence where Taglioni sprang from rose bush to rose bush, alighting on pointe in the centre of each. Hidden in each rose was a metal plate, about 8cm in diameter, set on springs to absorb her landing and provide a lift off as she jumped to the next. Few other dancers could have achieved such precision and balance and Taglioni always considered it to be one of her most amazing technical feats.
Many Romantic ballet prints record dancers drifting on clouds, flying through the air or posed on flowers, all of which were, with the aid of technology, introduced into ballets to heighten the impression of ethereality and otherworldliness.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Marie Taglioni in L'Ombre (generic title) |
| Materials and techniques | Hand-coloured lithograph |
| Brief description | Marie Taglioni in L'Ombre. Lithograph coloured by hand, ca.1840 |
| Physical description | A parkland with a chateau, back left, and, to the front, rose bushes. In the foreground is a rose bush with pale pink roses. On the topmost rose a dancer stands on pointe, her right leg stretched behind her, her right arm down, her hand holding a floral wreath with pink roses, her left arm bent with index finger raised level with her lips. Her head is turned towards the viewer. On her head is a dense coronet of pink roses. She wears an off-the-shoulder bodice with loose short sleeves and a pointed centre front. Her white knee-length, bell-shaped skirt has an overskirt, split down the front, weighted with tassels. |
| Dimensions |
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| Gallery label |
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| Credit line | Given by Dame Marie Rambert |
| Object history | 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. |
| Subject depicted | |
| Summary | L'Ombre (The Shadow) was originally choreographed by Filippo Taglioni for his daughter Marie, greatest of all 19th century ballerinas. It was first danced by her at the Bolshoi in St Petersburg in 1839, then revived in a two-act version at Her Majesty's Theatre in London in 1840. Its story was even more preposterous than most Romantic ballets - the heroine, murdered with a poisoned bouquet, haunts her former lover to prevent him marrying another. The plot was nothing more than excuse for Taglioni to display her ethereal lightness and elevation and the ballet was not a particular success. What made it worth recording was the sequence where Taglioni sprang from rose bush to rose bush, alighting on pointe in the centre of each. Hidden in each rose was a metal plate, about 8cm in diameter, set on springs to absorb her landing and provide a lift off as she jumped to the next. Few other dancers could have achieved such precision and balance and Taglioni always considered it to be one of her most amazing technical feats. Many Romantic ballet prints record dancers drifting on clouds, flying through the air or posed on flowers, all of which were, with the aid of technology, introduced into ballets to heighten the impression of ethereality and otherworldliness. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | E.5061-1968 |
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| Record created | October 5, 2004 |
| Record URL |
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