Hand-coloured lithograph of two dancers in Spanish costume, from the cover of the music sheet for the 'Perea Nena Polka' by Carl Höchst, Harry Beard Collection

Hand-coloured lithograph of two dancers, male and female, in Spanish costume. A country landscape of trees and hills is visible behind them. The female dancer is dressed in a lavishly decorated outfit of white and pale yellow. Her dress, with its capped sleeves, is largely concealed beneath the ornate white lace shawl which she wears over her head. In her right hand she is holding the edge of her wide skirt, made of two layers of a patterned white fabric and with a scalloped hem trimmed in pale yellow. She has plain gold bracelets on each wrists and pale yellow ballet shoes. She gazes up at her male companion, who is dressed in much darker tones. His tight-fitting breeches are scarlet, with a swirling gold motif at the side seam. He has a wide yellow and red cummerbund, a short sleeveless black jacket decorated with gold braid, and a plain black hat. He holds castanets in each hand, his left arm is folded behind his back and his right arm is upraised. A further male dancer is on the far left, dressed in a short jacket, high-waisted, tight-fitting breeches with a wide yellow cummerbund, and a wide-brimmed black hat. On the far right is a female dancer, dressed in a wide-skirted dress which finishes just below the knee. The front-lacing, fitted bodice of this dress is a deep pink as are her delicate ballet shoes and the wide bands of decoration at the hem of her skirt.

Hand-coloured lithograph of two dancers in Spanish costume. The image is cut from the front cover of the music sheet for The Perea Nena Polka by Carl Höchst. Harry Beard Collection.

The polka was written to celebrate the dancer, Dona Manuela Perea, known as La Nena (the baby) because of her diminutive figure. Perea appeared in London in the mid 19th century.

S.6357-2009