Marie Taglioni in “La Sylphide”

Location

Country: Other
City: other locations abroad

Ballet dancer Marie Taglioni (1804-1884) here poses in a knee-length, diaphanous skirt, with fairy wings attached to her back.

Born in Stockholm, Sweden, Marie Taglioni is widely considered to have been the greatest ballerina of the 19th century. In ‘La Sylphide’, her most famous role, she played a Sylph, or forest fairy. The first version of ‘La Sylphide’ premiered on 12 March 1832 at the Paris Opéra. The choreography was by Italian dancer and choreographer Filippo Taglioni (1777-1871; Marie’s father) and the music by French composer Jean Madeleine Marie Schneitzhöeffer (1785-1852). Filippo designed the work as a showcase for his daughter. The love story ends with the death of the Sylph, as her wings fall from her, while she is held in the arms of her suitor. Taglioni’s performance came to encompass femininity and a symbol of ideal womanhood. The costume she wore in the role - a low-necked, calf-length, bell-shaped diaphanous dress - was also greatly influential, becoming the 'uniform' of subsequent generations of ballet dancers.

Alfred Edward Chalon was born in Geneva but moved to England as a child, when his father was made French professor at Sandhurst. He began his studies at the Royal Academy Schools in 1797 and, having become a fashionable portraitist, was elected a Royal Academician in 1816. Chalon was the first to paint Queen Victoria on her accession to the throne. He was later appointed her official Portrait Painter in Water-colours. His brother, John James Chalon (1778-1854), was also a painter and together they established the Society for the Study of Epic and Pastoral Design in 1808, also known as the Bread and Cheese Society, and the Chalon Sketching Society. Chalon died in Kensington in 1860 and was buried in Highgate Cemetery.
Born in Dublin, John Samuelson Templeton studied at the Dublin Society’s Drawing School, before moving to London. He became a portrait and landscape painter, and a lithographer of portraits and marine subjects after his own designs. He engraved several portraits in the 1830s and 1840s. His marine subjects included ‘The Crew of the Edward Landing from the Wreck on the North Wall, Dublin Bay’ (published 1825) and ‘Making for a Port, a Gale Coming On’ (1827). Templeton also made engravings for ‘The Guide to Oil Painting’, a series of books published by George Rowney & Co., suppliers of artists' materials.

People

(1804 - 1884)

Places

Subjects

vase (as Subject), dance, theatre, ballet dancer, female portrait, genre, flower, 19th century costume, dress, tutu, window

Materials & Techniques

lithograph, coloured lithograph

Artist

Alfred Edward Chalon (1780 - 1860)
John Samuelson Templeton

Title

Marie Taglioni in “La Sylphide”

Portfolio Title

Souvenir d'Adieu

Date

Medium

Coloured lithograph

Acquisition

Presented by Sir Nigel Ronald, January 1954

GAC number

15845