Research Catalog

Title

Dancers' accidents [graphic].

Publication

[1849?-1860]

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Johannot, Tony, 1803-1852.

Description

3 prints (2 sheets) : wood engraving, b&w; 37 x 29 cm. or smaller.

Summary

Illustrations from nineteenth-century periodicals, reporting mishaps that befell ballet dancers onstage. In a wood engraving from the German periodical Illustrirte Zeitung, ca. 1849, a dancer called Mademoiselle Marie appears to plunge over the footlights and into the orchestra pit. A more horrific accident is represented in a wood engraving from an American periodical, depicting the tightrope dancer Josephine Farren as her costume catches fire at the Volks Garten theatre in the Bowery, New York, in 1860. The sheet from the Illustrirte Zeitung also contains a print of Mademoiselle Marie in a calmer moment as she dances with a male partner in the ballet Die Eilandsnymphe.

Uniform Title

Illustrirte Zeitung (Leipzig, Germany)

Subjects

• Wood engravings
• Farren, Josephine
• Dancing injuries

Genre/Form

Wood engravings.

Note

• Title devised by cataloger.
• For more information on Josephine Farren, see Mary Grace Swift's "Dancers in flames," Dance chronicle, vol. 5, no. 1, 1982, p. 1-10. A version of the print in this collection is reproduced on p. 5.

Source (note)

• Lillian Moore.

Biography (note)

• In a time when stage lighting consisted of open flames fueled by oil or gas, the danger of catching fire and burning to death was a real threat to nineteenth-century ballet dancers. Perhaps the best-known case was that of Emma Livry, 1841-1862, whose brilliant future was tragically cut short when her costume caught fire at the Paris Opéra in 1862. Josephine Farren, the dancer illustrated here, also died of her injuries.

Contents

Mademoiselle Marie im Ballet: "Die Eilandsnymphe"; Illustrirte Zeitung, no. 297 -- Neues Pas der Mademoiselle Marie im "Befreiten Jerusalem"; Illustrirte Zeitung, no. 297 / gezeichnet von Tony Johannot -- Terrible accident at the Volks Garten, Bowery, N.Y. Burning of Josephine Farren while performing on the tightrope.

Call Number

*MGZFX Acc 1-2

OCLC

825562923

Title

Dancers' accidents [graphic].

Imprint

[1849?-1860]

Biography

In a time when stage lighting consisted of open flames fueled by oil or gas, the danger of catching fire and burning to death was a real threat to nineteenth-century ballet dancers. Perhaps the best-known case was that of Emma Livry, 1841-1862, whose brilliant future was tragically cut short when her costume caught fire at the Paris Opéra in 1862. Josephine Farren, the dancer illustrated here, also died of her injuries.

Local Note

Cataloging funds provided by Friends of Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

Source

Gift; Lillian Moore.

Connect to:

NYPL Digital Collections

Added Author

Johannot, Tony, 1803-1852. Artist

Moore, Lillian. Donor

Added Title

Illustrirte Zeitung (Leipzig, Germany)

Research Call Number

*MGZFX Acc 1-2