Research Catalog

Title

Episodes du ballet de Nisida, par Mabille; costumes fabuleux de feu Duponchel [graphic] / dessinés par Gustave Janet.

Author

Janet, Gustave, 1829-

Publication

[1848?]

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

1 print : wood engraving, b&w; 30 x 43 cm.

Summary

Caricatures of a ballet, depicted in four scenes arranged in the manner of a comic strip. The top row contains three moments from a pas de deux, probably danced by the heroine Nisida and her love-interest, Don Éthur. An ensemble of Amazons, dressed in tutus accessorized by helmets and spears, appears in the scenes at center and at right. The image at far right probably depicts the first scene of Act 2, in which they doff their garments to bathe in a grotto. The lower row is occupied by a single scene filled with dancing couples, the men heavily bearded and dressed in sixteenth-century style, the women in short tutus with wreaths on their heads.

Subjects

• Nisida; ou Les amazones des Açores (Choreographic work : Mabille)
• Caricatures
• Plunkett, Adeline, 1824-1910 > Caricatures and cartoons
• Ballet > France > 19th century > Caricatures and cartoons
• Petipa, Lucien, 1815-1898 > Caricatures and cartoons

Genre/Form

Caricatures.

Note

• [Printed by] Imp. Aubert.

Biography (note)

• Nisida; ou les amazones des Açores (choreography, Auguste Mabille; scenario, Eugène Deligny; music, François Benoist) was first presented at the Paris Opéra in 1848. The Duponchel mentioned in the cartoon's title may refer to Henri Duponchel, a scene designer who was then director of the Opéra. The cast was led by the ballerina Adeline Plunkett (a Belgian partly of Irish descent) in the title role as an officer in the army of Amazons ruled by the queen Josefa, danced by Mlle. Maria [Jacob]. Complications ensue when a shipload of Spaniards arrives, among them Don Éthur (Lucien Petipa), described in the ballet's scenario as the most elegant among them, and the hunchback Don Oscar, played by [Francisque Garnier?] Berthier. The central couple in the lower row may represent Josefa and Don Oscar, celebrating the resolution of the plot's entanglements.
• This print was probably published in a French illustrated periodical, possibly Le Monde Illustré, to which Gustave Janet frequently contributed. The comic strip form was introduced by lithographer Rodolphe Töpffer in 1833 and later adopted by wood engravers, who sometimes accompanied their illustrations with printed text.

Call Number

*MGZFE-19 Jan G Nis 1

OCLC

759168014

Author

Janet, Gustave, 1829-

Title

Episodes du ballet de Nisida, par Mabille; costumes fabuleux de feu Duponchel [graphic] / dessinés par Gustave Janet.

Imprint

[1848?]

Biography

Nisida; ou les amazones des Açores (choreography, Auguste Mabille; scenario, Eugène Deligny; music, François Benoist) was first presented at the Paris Opéra in 1848. The Duponchel mentioned in the cartoon's title may refer to Henri Duponchel, a scene designer who was then director of the Opéra. The cast was led by the ballerina Adeline Plunkett (a Belgian partly of Irish descent) in the title role as an officer in the army of Amazons ruled by the queen Josefa, danced by Mlle. Maria [Jacob]. Complications ensue when a shipload of Spaniards arrives, among them Don Éthur (Lucien Petipa), described in the ballet's scenario as the most elegant among them, and the hunchback Don Oscar, played by [Francisque Garnier?] Berthier. The central couple in the lower row may represent Josefa and Don Oscar, celebrating the resolution of the plot's entanglements.

This print was probably published in a French illustrated periodical, possibly Le Monde Illustré, to which Gustave Janet frequently contributed. The comic strip form was introduced by lithographer Rodolphe Töpffer in 1833 and later adopted by wood engravers, who sometimes accompanied their illustrations with printed text.

Local Note

On library's copy, title is hidden by mat.

Cataloging funds provided by Friends of Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

This item may be offsite for digitization. For additional information please contact dance@nypl.org.

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Research Call Number

*MGZFE-19 Jan G Nis 1