Research Catalog

Title

Men dancers and choreographers in prints [graphic].

Publication

[18--?]

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• D'Avignon, Francis, 1813-
• Lacauchie, Alexandre.

Description

8 prints : etching, engraving, wood engraving, lithograph, b&w; 33 x 26 cm. or smaller.

Summary

Collection culled from a variety of sources, depicting action drawings or portraits of men dancers or choreographers, chiefly active during the nineteenth century. The collection has been arranged alphabetically by the performers' surnames.

Subjects

• Valentine, Paul (Choreographer)
• Wood engravings
• Mérante, Louis, 1828-1887
• Price, Valdemar
• Portraits
• Perrot, Jules, 1810-1892 > Caricatures and cartoons
• Saracco, Pietro > Portraits
• Lithographs
• Blasis, Carlo, 1803-1878 > Portraits
• Sheet music covers

Genre/Form

• Portraits.
• Wood engravings.
• Lithographs.
• Sheet music covers.

Note

• Title devised by cataloger.

Source (note)

• Lillian Moore.
• Lincoln Kirstein.

Biography (note)

• Carlo Blasis was a dancer, choreographer, teacher, and director of the ballet school of La Scala, Milan. He is probably best remembered today as a dance theoretician. His books include Traité élémentaire théorique et pratique de l'art de la danse (1820) and The code of Terpsichore (1830). This portrait is a variant of a print engraved by L. Mantovani after A. Azzolini.
• Louis Mérante was a principal dancer and choreographer at the Paris Opera. Among his best known ballets are Sylvia (1876) and Les deux pigeons (1886).
• The writer Théophile Gautier was so impressed by Jules Perrot's virtuosity as a dancer that he called him the "male Taglioni," likening him to Marie Taglioni, the most famous ballerina of the Romantic era. Perrot also made his name as a choreographer, creating ballets such as Ondine ou la naïade (1843) and Esmeralda (1844), a ballet adaptation of Victor Hugo's novel Notre-Dame de Paris. He is represented in two prints in this collection. One depicts him in the opera-ballet Le zingaro; the other is a caricature from the British humor periodical Punch.
• Valdemar Price was a member of a family of dancers in Denmark. He became a popular and beloved interpreter of August Bournonville's ballets for the Royal Danish Ballet. For more information, and a reproduction of the photograph upon which this print is based, see: Veale, Tom G., "The dancing Prices of Denmark," Dance perspectives 11, summer 1961.
• Pietro Saracco was an Italian dancer and choreographer who evidently also made a name as a dancing master. The sheet music cover bearing his portrait describes him as "professor, inventor and the first introducer of all the new and modern dances in the United States."
• Paul Valentine was a British dancer and choreographer during the late 19th century.

Contents

Carlo Blasis, ballet composer and first master at the Imperial Academy of Dancing, Milan -- Ghirlanda, Padova il Carnoval del 1823; [penciled notation] Ballerino / Bergamo del. ; Martire inc. -- Le centenaire d'Auber a l'Opéra. M. Mérante, role du Pifferaro dans l'à-propos-ballet; [penciled notation] 1882 / dessin d'après nature de Mathey -- Perrot; Paris, Mareham / Alexandre Lacauchie ; Litho de Rigo frères -- A man of action [Jules Perrot; includes brief text]; Punch -- Hr. Vald[emar] Price i Napoli -- Fashionable dances taught by [Pietro] Saracco ... [sheet music cover]; New York, William Hall & Son, [1848] / on stone by [Francis] Davignon, from daguer[roty]pe by [P.] Haas -- Mr. Paul Valentine, the ballet; The Entr'acte, Dec. 8, 1883 / AB.

Call Number

*MGZFX Men 1-8

OCLC

825775968

Title

Men dancers and choreographers in prints [graphic].

Imprint

[18--?]

Biography

Carlo Blasis was a dancer, choreographer, teacher, and director of the ballet school of La Scala, Milan. He is probably best remembered today as a dance theoretician. His books include Traité élémentaire théorique et pratique de l'art de la danse (1820) and The code of Terpsichore (1830). This portrait is a variant of a print engraved by L. Mantovani after A. Azzolini.

Louis Mérante was a principal dancer and choreographer at the Paris Opera. Among his best known ballets are Sylvia (1876) and Les deux pigeons (1886).

The writer Théophile Gautier was so impressed by Jules Perrot's virtuosity as a dancer that he called him the "male Taglioni," likening him to Marie Taglioni, the most famous ballerina of the Romantic era. Perrot also made his name as a choreographer, creating ballets such as Ondine ou la naïade (1843) and Esmeralda (1844), a ballet adaptation of Victor Hugo's novel Notre-Dame de Paris. He is represented in two prints in this collection. One depicts him in the opera-ballet Le zingaro; the other is a caricature from the British humor periodical Punch.

Valdemar Price was a member of a family of dancers in Denmark. He became a popular and beloved interpreter of August Bournonville's ballets for the Royal Danish Ballet. For more information, and a reproduction of the photograph upon which this print is based, see: Veale, Tom G., "The dancing Prices of Denmark," Dance perspectives 11, summer 1961.

Pietro Saracco was an Italian dancer and choreographer who evidently also made a name as a dancing master. The sheet music cover bearing his portrait describes him as "professor, inventor and the first introducer of all the new and modern dances in the United States."

Paul Valentine was a British dancer and choreographer during the late 19th century.

Local Note

Cataloging funds provided by Friends of Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

For another version of the portrait of Carlo Blasis, see: *MGZFB Bla C P 2.

A digitized version of the portrait of Carlo Blasis is available at: NYPL Digital Gallery Image ID: 1106042.

For a colored version of Alexandre Lacauchie's print of Jules Perrot, see: *MGZFB Per J Zin 2.

Another copy of Fashionable dances taught by Saracco is held in the Josephine Butler collection of music covers; see: *MGZFX Mus 25.

Source

Hr. Vald. Price Gift; Lillian Moore.

Paul Valentine Gift; Lincoln Kirstein.

Connect to:

NYPL Digital Collections

Added Author

D'Avignon, Francis, 1813- Lithographer

Lacauchie, Alexandre. Artist

Moore, Lillian. Donor

Kirstein, Lincoln, 1907-1996. Donor

Research Call Number

*MGZFX Men 1-8