Costume de Madame Montessu, premiere danseuse, dans Ipsiboé, opéra, Th. de l'Académie roy'le de musique

What you are looking at

A single female dancer stands in a contrapposto pose against a neutral background, wearing the formal dress of a Parisian opera dancer of the early 19th century. Her costume consists of a high-waisted muslin gown with a cream ground decorated with golden-brown motifs arranged in a scattered pattern across the skirt; the bodice is fitted with a bronze or gold-coloured band at the waist and a darker crossover drape at the bust. Her short puffed sleeves sit off the shoulders in the Regency fashion. She wears her hair up in a classical arrangement with curled tendrils framing her face. Her posture is relaxed and graceful, with her weight resting on one leg while the other is lightly posed; her arms hang at her sides with hands delicately positioned. The figure is rendered in hand-coloured engraving or aquatint, with careful attention to the fall of fabric and the subtle modelling of the skin. A narrow line frames the composition, and the ground beneath her feet is rendered in a soft grey wash.

The dancing

A single dancer occupies the frame in a standing pose that suggests ease and display rather than active movement. Her weight is settled into one leg while the other is placed lightly forward, a disposition common in Romantic-era ballet for showing the line of the leg and foot. The torso is held upright but without visible tension; the arms rest naturally at the sides. The pose is not one of violent action but of presentation — the kind of moment a dancer might hold while the audience admired her costume and carriage. The proportions and posture suggest training in the academic ballet technique of the period.

The dance depicted

This is a costume study for a named performer (Madame Montessu, described as a première danseuse) in a specific opera-ballet production (*Ipsiboé*, performed at the Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique, the Paris Opéra). The image is not a record of a particular choreographic moment but rather a costume design or reference, showing what the dancer would have worn and how she presented herself to the audience. The standing pose and theatrical dress align with the conventions of Romantic ballet and opera-ballet hybrids of the 1820s–1830s. No specific dance style or technique is depicted here; instead, the work documents the visual spectacle and costume as an element of theatrical dance production.

How it was made

This appears to be a hand-coloured engraving or aquatint on paper, a standard medium for theatrical costume documentation and distribution in the early 19th century. The technique allowed for precise rendering of textiles and fine detail while remaining economical to print and circulate among theatregoers, subscribers, and collectors. The hand-colouring was applied after printing, giving each impression individual character and allowing the artist to suggest the richness of actual fabrics. Such prints served as both promotional material and a record of celebrated performances, and were often collected in albums or bound volumes dedicated to particular seasons or theatres.

About this work

This is a hand-coloured costume study of Madame Montessu, a leading dancer of the Paris Opéra in the early 19th century, as she appeared in *Ipsiboé*, an opera-ballet performed at the Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique. The work is a professional print—probably created for circulation among theatre patrons and collectors—that documents both the dancer's status as a celebrated performer and the visual conventions of Romantic opera-ballet costume. Rather than depicting a moment of choreography, it presents the dancer as a figure of elegance and refinement, dressed in high-waisted muslin in the neoclassical taste, a costume aesthetic that dominated French opera and ballet in the 1820s–1830s. The print is a valuable record of how celebrated dancers were visually marketed and remembered, and of the dialogue between fashion, fine art, and theatrical spectacle in this era.

How to look at it

Look at the precision with which the engraver has rendered the texture of the muslin and the patterning of the embellishment—these details were as much a part of the spectacle as the dancer herself. Notice the careful balance of the pose: the body is at ease, not in a moment of exertion, which suggests that this is how Madame Montessu would have appeared to the audience during entrances, curtain calls, or moments of display between active dancing. The hand-colouring, applied to each impression by hand, gives this print an individual quality; if you could compare two impressions, you would see variation in how the gold of the embellishment was rendered. The narrow frame and plain background emphasize the figure herself, making her the sole object of attention—a convention of portrait printmaking adapted here to the theatre.

The artist

The artist is not recorded. The print was made for the Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique (the Paris Opéra) and likely issued by a commercial theatrical print publisher active in Paris during the 1820s–1830s. Such prints were often drawn from stage observation or from designs made by costume designers and theatre painters, then engraved and hand-coloured for sale. The anonymity of the maker is typical for such commercial work, which was valued as a record and souvenir rather than as the expression of an individual artistic identity.

The period

This print dates to the height of Romantic ballet in Paris, a period when the Paris Opéra was the most prestigious dance theatre in Europe and when dancers such as Marie Taglioni and other étoiles became celebrities whose images were widely circulated in prints. The neoclassical high-waisted muslin costume seen here reflects both the lingering influence of Regency fashion (c. 1810–1820) and the Romantic interest in delicate, ethereal femininity. The format of the costume print—a single figure against a plain ground—became standardized as a way of promoting both the dancer and the theatre. *Ipsiboé* is an early example of the opéra dansante, the hybrid form that mixed sung narrative with extended dance sequences and was increasingly popular in Paris in the 1820s–1830s.

Where it lives

This print comes from the New York Public Library's collection of prints depicting dance. It is catalogued as a costume study or design document for a specific production, rather than as a general illustration or fine art print. Such prints were often collected in albums or sold individually as souvenirs.

Dance in this work

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