Between Acts or the Englishwoman of the New Ballet

What you are looking at

A seated gentleman in dark formal dress observes two female figures in a dimly lit interior. The man, shown in three-quarter profile, wears a black coat with white shirt front and sits with one arm relaxed. Behind him stands a fully nude woman wearing only a decorative headdress and drapery, her body displayed in a classical contrapposto stance. To her right, a clothed female figure in a long dress gestures toward the scene. The setting is rendered in muted tones with shadowy walls and sparse furnishings, creating an atmosphere of theatrical artifice. A pale light source above suggests stage lighting or an interior fixture. The composition suggests a moment of performance or presentation—the nude figure posed for aesthetic contemplation rather than active movement.

The dancing

The nude figure adopts a classical ballet-derived pose with weight centered, one leg slightly forward, arms positioned with the upstage arm extended and the downstage arm curved. Her posture suggests training in academic dance or modeling conventions, with the body aligned in a frontal plane facing the seated observer. The seated man remains still and contemplative, while the clothed figure's gesture—arm extended toward the nude form—emphasizes presentation and spectatorship. No active dance movement is evident; the figures are arranged in a moment of studied stillness rather than locomotion.

The dance depicted

The work depicts not a dance in the active sense but the backstage or dressing-room moment of theatrical ballet culture. The title *Between Acts* and the subtitle *Englishwoman of the New Ballet* suggest a scene from mid-19th-century ballet practice or fantasy. The nude female form represents the ballet dancer as both artistic object and commodity; her classical pose echoes the attitudes and arabesques of Romantic ballet technique, but she is shown not performing on stage but displayed and observed. The setting and dress indicate this is social theatre—the world of ballet as seen by spectators with access to its margins. The 'New Ballet' subtitle may reference contemporary developments in Parisian ballet or satirize the English appropriation of French ballet culture.

How it was made

The work is a heliogravure (photogravure), a photo-based intaglio process that combines photographic precision with the tonal range of etching. The medium allows fine gradation of tone and delicate rendering of texture—visible in the fabric of the woman's dress, the fabric of the nude figure's drapery, and the subtle modeling of flesh. Heliogravure was expensive and produced in limited numbers, circulating among collectors rather than as popular prints. This technique was favored for sophisticated, often scandalous subject matter among fin-de-siècle cognoscenti, and the choice of medium here signals an artwork intended for a knowing audience aware of contemporary debates about art, the body, and performance.

About this work

This is a satirical or observational print depicting the world of mid-19th-century ballet as a site of male spectatorship and female display. Rather than showing a dance on stage, it captures the moment between acts—the dressing room or rehearsal space where the ballet body is revealed as both artistic ideal and social commodity. The work belongs to a tradition of theatre-world imagery that exposes the mechanics of performance and the gender dynamics embedded in dance culture. Félicien Rops was known for probing such intersections between aesthetics, eroticism, and social critique, and this print exemplifies his interest in the theatrical and the transgressive.

How to look at it

Attend first to the composition's geometry: the seated observer frames and anchors the image, while the standing figures form a kind of presentation or display. The nude figure's classical pose—reminiscent of ballet attitudes—is undercut by her presentation as object rather than performer; note how the clothed woman's gesture points toward her as if displaying a work of art. The darkness of the setting and the precision of the heliogravure technique create an atmosphere of intimate, almost clandestine observation. The work asks the viewer to occupy the position of the seated man—to witness, judge, and desire.

The artist

Félicien Rops (1833–1898) was a Belgian Symbolist printmaker and painter known for provocative subjects exploring desire, decadence, and social transgression. He worked across multiple print media—etching, lithography, and photogravure—to circulate works that challenged bourgeois moral conventions. Rops was also a keen observer of Parisian theatre and entertainment culture, frequently depicting actresses, dancers, and the demi-monde. His work was admired by literary and artistic circles but often condemned as obscene; he represents a strand of 19th-century printmaking that used technical sophistication to frame socially marginal or explicit subjects.

The period

The print dates to 1853, a moment when Romantic ballet (featuring works like *Giselle* and *La Sylphide*) was established across Europe, but the nature of ballet employment, training, and the social status of dancers remained contested. The mid-19th century saw rising anxiety about the dancer's body as both artistic and sexual object; the rise of photography and new print media made the body increasingly available for circulation and consumption. The subtitle's reference to 'Englishwoman' and the 'New Ballet' may reflect the period's complex relationship with English culture and the internationalization of ballet practice. The 1850s were also a moment of technical innovation in printmaking, with heliogravure offering new possibilities for reproducing tonal images.

Where it lives

The work is held in the Prints and Drawings collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. Heliogravures by Rops were typically issued in limited editions for collectors and were often bound into portfolios or albums; this single impression has been catalogued as part of the museum's print collection.

Dance in this work

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