Costume de Melle Carlotta Grisi, rôle de la Péri, dans la Péri: (Ballet). Academie Royale de Musique

What you are looking at

A single female dancer in theatrical costume is captured mid-movement against a plain background. She wears a pale, voluminous skirt with a deep ruffle at the hem, fitted at the waist with vertical striping or gathering that suggests the garment's structure. Over this sits a short blue silk corsage or bodice, cut low across the shoulders with short sleeves. Her dark hair is styled close to her head and crowned with an ornate tiara or decorative headdress. Her right arm is raised gracefully with the hand articulated in a refined gesture; her left arm extends downward and outward. She stands in a balletic pose on the point of one foot—the other leg is extended or held in support—with her weight clearly forward and her body angled into the movement. The figure is rendered in a three-quarter view against an unadorned cream-colored ground, lit evenly from the front, so that the silhouette of the costume and the line of the body read clearly.

The dancing

A single dancer, drawn with anatomical care. Her posture shows the lifted, elongated frame characteristic of ballet: the supporting leg is straight and appears to work from a turned-out hip, the free leg is active and extended, and the torso is held upright with the shoulders back and down. Both arms are positioned with deliberate grace—the raised arm bent at the elbow with the hand softly articulated, the lower arm open and extended. The pose reads as a moment of balanced suspension or transition between steps, with the weight fully engaged and the body demonstrating the control and extension expected of a trained dancer.

The dance depicted

This is a costume study for the role of the Péri in the ballet *La Péri*, first performed at the Académie Royale de Musique (the Paris Opéra) in 1841. The Péri is a supernatural being—a fairy-like spirit from Persian mythology—and the role became one of the most celebrated and technically demanding parts in the Romantic ballet repertoire. The figure's pose and bearing confirm she is trained in the vocabulary of classical ballet: the turned-out legs, the lifted port de bras, and the balletic line are all hallmarks of the style. The costume itself—the ethereal, pale skirt combined with the close-fitted corsage and ornamental headdress—is iconic of the Romantic era, designed to suggest otherworldliness and grace.

How it was made

This is a hand-colored engraving or possibly a lithograph with watercolor or gouache added. The precision of the line-work, the delicate hatching that models form and texture, and the way the image is framed within a rectangular border all point to commercial printmaking in the nineteenth century. The subtle tinting of the blue corsage and the soft rendering of the skirt's folds suggest hand-coloring after a printed base. This technique allowed the work to be reproduced and distributed to a broad audience—dancers, ballet enthusiasts, and subscribers to fashion and theatrical periodicals—making it a form of celebrity portraiture and costume documentation.

About this work

This is a costume study of a dancer in the role of the Péri, a supernatural protagonist in the 1841 Paris Opéra ballet *La Péri*. The image documents both the dancer's trained body—her balletic carriage, turned-out legs, and lifted frame—and the costume designed to project an ethereal, supernatural presence: a low-cut corsage paired with a voluminous pale skirt and an ornamental headdress. The work is a hand-colored print of the kind that circulated widely in nineteenth-century theater culture, serving at once as a record of choreography and costume, a souvenir of a celebrated performance, and a form of publicity. It belongs in this collection because it captures the moment when Romantic ballet reached its technical and aesthetic peak, and because the image itself reveals what audiences of the 1840s expected a prima ballerina to embody: otherworldly grace allied with disciplined bodily control.

How to look at it

Attend to the dancer's posture and line first: the elongated neck, the squared shoulders, the lifted ribcage, and the engaged legs form a vertical column that reads as effortless grace but requires rigorous training to achieve. Note the precision of the arm placement—both arms are active, neither is merely ornamental, and both serve the overall line of the body. Look at the costume: the contrast between the fitted, structured corsage (which emphasizes the dancer's upper body and the line of the arms) and the weightless skirt (which suggests flight and otherworldliness) is a central visual conceit of Romantic ballet design. The headdress, while ornamental, sits high and allows the face and neck to be seen; this too is characteristic—the dancer's face and emotional expression were considered essential to Romantic ballet performance. Finally, consider what moment in movement the artist has chosen: this is neither a preparatory position nor a fully extended jump or turnout, but a held, balanced moment that shows both control and the promise of further movement.

The period

This image dates to the Romantic era in ballet, a period (roughly 1830–1870) in which supernatural and exotic themes dominated the stage, female dancers became the central focus of choreography and audience attention, and the technical demands placed on dancers—particularly pointework and extensions—grew steadily. *La Péri*, choreographed by Jean Coralli and Joseph Mazilier with music by Frédéric Burgmüller, premiered on 17 July 1841 and became one of the signature works of the Romantic repertoire. It was performed by and later associated with the greatest ballerinas of the era, including Marie Taglioni and Carlotta Grisi (to whom this costume study is attributed). The work exemplifies Romantic aesthetics: an emphasis on the ethereal and otherworldly, a narrative centered on a female protagonist's quest or transformation, elaborate spectacle, and a sophisticated vocabulary of movement that blended classical line with newfound technical virtuosity. The print culture that surrounded ballet in this period—costume studies, portraits, souvenir lithographs, and fashion plates—was itself a form of celebrity and cultural documentation.

Where it lives

This image comes from the Prints collection of the New York Public Library, a holding of printed theatrical and dance imagery from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It is a professional costume study of the type produced for circulation within theater circles and to the paying public.

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