Fanny Elssler in La Voliere. Lithograph by M Gauci after J Deffett Francis coloured by hand, published 1838

Full length female dancer in mid-jump with pointed feet together and arms bent to waist, wearing Romantic ballet dress with low necked fitted bodice and short puff sleeves, with a floral corsage tinted blue and blue green above the right breast, wide gold belt and five-tiered skirt, which flows outward around the legs and hips; on the head is a floral wreath headdress tinted in blue, palest pink and blue green foliage, long pearls necklaces fly outward from the neck, a stole around the back. On the right lower arm is a gold bracelet and on the left pearl bracelets. Titled "La Voliere - Portrait of Mademoiselle F. Elssler." with facsimile signature, publisher, printer and artist and printed "Proof".

Cyril W. Beaumont Bequest

"La Voliere" with choreography by Fanny Elssler's sister, Therese, was produced at the Paris Opera in 1838 to a scenario by Eugène Scribe as a vehicle for the two sisters.
Zoe is kept from a knowledge of men by her jilted sister; told that a young man is a bird, she entices him into a birdcage (the volière of the title), but in the end love triumphs. The ballet was not a success, but Fanny's performance as the innocent Zoe was memorable enough to be preserved in this magnificent lithograph, one of the few prints of the period to show a dancer 'in action' and with a vitality unsurpassed in the Romantic Ballet print canon. Although the print was published in London, "La Volière" was never performed there.
The print is pendant to the lithograph of Taglioni in "Le Dieu et la Bayadere" also published in 1838.
The word "Proof", formally printed on many English prints, related to a peculiarly English convention among printmakers. It did not mean a test pull of the print; because lithographs could be issued in such large editions it was felt that they were of little worth, compared to engravings, so the practice developed of titling some of the early pulls as "Proof" and selling them at a premium. The marking was no indication of quality, as later prints from the same stone could be as fine, if not finer.
The print came to the Museum as part of the Cyril Beaumont Bequest.
In the 19th century, the edges of prints were often left to be folded over card or stretcher before framing. The print was originally folded over a stretcher and the corners removed to reduce bulk.

Lithograph by M Gauci after J Deffett Francis coloured by hand, published 1838.

S.129-1992