The cachucha as danced by Mademoiselle Duvernay, with Une valse sentimentale by A. Flèche.

What you are looking at

A solo female dancer in a billowing white tutu dominates the composition, captured mid-movement against a dark ground. Her body is arched backward in a dramatic pose, one arm curved above her head in classical ballet port de bras, the other extended. The tutu, rendered with delicate linear hatching, flares in a wide circle around her hips and thighs, suggesting rapid rotation or the sustained suspension of a grand movement. Her dark hair is pulled back, and her face, shown in three-quarter view, expresses focused concentration. The lower portion of the composition shows a dark horizontal band suggesting a stage or ground plane. The work employs dramatic chiaroscuro—the dancer's pale form and white costume glow against deep shadow—creating theatrical intensity and focus. No accompaniment, scenery, or other figures are visible; the composition isolates and elevates the soloist's virtuosity.

The dancing

The dancer's frame is elegantly elongated, her torso arched in a pronounced backbend with her head tilted back. Her raised arm forms a classical rounded curve; her supporting leg appears straight and engaged, bearing her weight with apparent ease. The tutu's volume and the tilt of her body suggest she is either executing or pausing within a turning movement—a pirouette or fouetté—or a cambré (back arch) with rotational energy. The single isolated figure and the clarity of the silhouette suggest this is a study of technical mastery rather than a narrative moment.

The dance depicted

This is Romantic-era ballet, most likely from the mid-19th century, and the title identifies it as a depiction of the cachucha—a lively Spanish folk dance—as performed by a named ballerina, Mademoiselle Duvernay. The cachucha was a fashionable divertissement in Romantic ballet, executed in the classical technique but rooted in Spanish character dance. The dancer's classical ballet form—the turnout, the arm position, the engagement—confirms this is ballet's reading of the Spanish idiom rather than vernacular Spanish dance. The dramatic arching and the rotation suggested by the tutu's deployment indicate the kind of virtuoso embellishments nineteenth-century ballerinas brought to character dances.

How it was made

This is a lithographic or engraved print, identified by the tonal modeling achieved through fine linear hatching and the grayscale palette. The technique allowed for mass circulation of star performers' likenesses—these prints were popular as souvenirs of celebrated dancers and performances, sold to audiences and collectors. The soft gradation of light, the atmospheric depth created by the dark background, and the precision of the dancer's form suggest a skilled hand and a print made for an educated audience. The scale and mounting suggest this was a standalone popular print rather than an illustration in a periodical.

About this work

This print documents the star dancer Mademoiselle Duvernay performing the cachucha, a Spanish-inflected character dance that became a staple of the Romantic ballet stage in the 1830s-1850s. The work captures both the technical achievements of the era—the clarity of classical ballet technique applied to character material—and the cult of the individual virtuoso that defined Romantic dance. The image is a record of how Spanish idiom was refracted through the classical vocabulary of Paris and London, a cross-cultural moment made visible in a single sustained gesture.

The print belongs to a substantial tradition of dance ephemera and promotional portraiture from the nineteenth century. These images circulated widely, shaping public memory of famous dancers and performances and serving as mementos for theatergoers. The isolation of the figure and the dramatic lighting elevate the dancer as an object of admiration rather than situating her within narrative or spectacle.

How to look at it

Attend to the dancer's spinal arch and the curve of her arms: this is the aesthetic of the Romantic era, which valued épaulement (the movement of the shoulders and arms) and a softly rounded, elongated silhouette over the geometric precision of later ballet. The tutu, flared and billowing, was the Romantic tutu—shorter and fuller than both earlier skirts and the later tutus of the late nineteenth century. Note how the composition isolates the moment: this is not a narrative scene but a freeze-frame of technical display, a moment designed to be gazed upon rather than one within a story. The dramatic lighting—the glow of the pale figure against deep shadow—emphasizes the theatrical experience of watching the star performer.

The period

The cachucha became fashionable in European ballrooms and in theatrical dance in the 1830s, imported as part of the broader Romantic enthusiasm for folk idiom, exoticism, and the performance of national or regional identity. In the ballet theater, dancers like Fanny Elssler (who made the cachucha famous across Europe) and others performed the dance as a divertissement within longer works or as a standalone vehicle. The movement coincided with the peak of Romantic ballet, when the female dancer was the principal focus of theatrical attention and when technical virtuosity—turns, extensions, balances—was being showcased with growing elaboration. The fashion for Spanish dances in European concert halls reflected broader tastes for folk authenticity and orientalism that shaped art, music, and fashion of the 1830s-1850s.

Where it lives

This print is held in the New York Public Library's collection of prints depicting dance. It is catalogued by title but bears no recorded artist attribution; such popular prints were often released anonymously or under the name of the printer or publisher rather than the draftsman or lithographer.

Dance in this work

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