- Additional Authors
- Humphrey, Hannah, active 1774-1817.
- Description
- Etching, colored, line border; 24 x 35 cm.
- Subjects
- Note
- A satirical print prompted by a speech made on March 2, 1796, in the House of Lords, by the Bishop of Durham, in which he condemned the costumes worn by the female ballet dancers and "allurements of the most indecent attitudes."
- A theatrical performance; three dancers holding a garland of roses. They are dressed alike with short tranparent petticoats partly covered by apron-length ecclesiastical cassocks. They are wearing white stockings (which were substituted during that controversial period for the flesh-colored hose generally worn).
- Rose Didelot is viewed from the back, her sharp features in profile. The contours of her body are revealed beneath her sheer costume. One of the other women is presumably Mlle Parisot.
- On each side of the stage is a column on the plinth of which stands (1.) a jeering satyr and (r.) a woman in the general attitude of the Venus dei Medici. Various instruments in the pit.
- Inscription below: "'Tis hard for such new fangled orthodox rules, That our opera-troop, should be blam'd, Since like our first parents, they only, poor fools, Danc'd naked, & were not asham'd!"
- Reproduced in Mary Grace Swift, A Loftier Flight, Wesleyan University Press, 1974, p. 74..
- Call Number
- *MGZFC Gil J Ope 1
- OCLC
- NYPY847031363-F
- Author
Gillray, James, 1756-1815.
- Title
Operatical reform; or la dance à l'évêque.
- Imprint
[London] pub'd by H. Humphrey, St. James's Street, March 14th, 1796.
- Local Note
This item may be offsite for digitization. For additional information please contact dance@nypl.org.
- Connect to:
- Local Subject
Prints (Graphic arts) -- Ballet -- 18th century.
Dance -- Caricatures and cartoons.
Ballet -- England -- 18th century.
- Local Subject
Morals and dancing.
- Added Author
Humphrey, Hannah, active 1774-1817.
- Research Call Number
*MGZFC Gil J Ope 1