Acquisition: Gift; Estate of Josephine Butler.
Biographical/Historical: Josephine DeNatale Butler, 1911-1996, was a dance educator, historian, and author. She began her career in fashion design, but in 1936 she and her husband Albert Butler founded the Albert Butler School of Dance, which she directed for fifty years. They also collaborated on the monumental Encyclopedia of social dancing, versions of which first appeared in the late 1960s. In 1970 she created an archive of social dancing, encompassing print materials, moving images, and other memorabilia, at the Dance Collection (today known as the Jerome Robbins Dance Division) of New York Public Library. These prints were among a collection of additional materials donated to the Library by her estate in 1996, selections from which appeared in the Library's exhibition Cotillion to cakewalk: social dance prints, presented from May 19-Sept. 13, 1997.
Statement Of Responsibility: James Gillray, artist
Statement Of Responsibility: Dépose à la Bibliot. Nat. Rue Montmartre, No. 132. et à Londres, chez H. Humphrey, St. James Street. No. 27
Additional Physical Form: The British Museum, which holds a copy of La walse with different coloration, identifies it as a copy of a French print.
Creation/Production Credits: The five prints in this collection were originally published singly between 1801 and 1822, and reissued as a collection under the title Observations sur les modes et les usages de Paris pour servir d'explication aux caricatures publiées sous le titre de Bon genre... (Paris, 1817; second edition, 1827).

Physical Description

Etchings
Extent: 1 print : etching, hand-colored ; line border 24 x 31 cm

Abstract

Images of 19th-century ballroom dancing, some verging on caricature. The originals were published singly between 1801 and 1822, and reissued as a collection under the title Observations sur les modes et les usages de Paris pour servir d'explication aux caricatures publiées sous le titre de Bon genre... (Paris, 1817; second edition, 1827). Three of the prints in this collection are leaves from a facsimile edition titled Trente-neuf aquarelles originales de Harriet, Pasquier, Garbizza, Dutailly, Garnerey et Lanté pour Le bon genre (Paris, 1930).

Identifiers

NYPL Catalog ID (bnumber): b19758841
Universal Unique Identifier (UUID): 356a6410-84f4-013d-2a38-0242ac110002

Rights

The New York Public Library believes that this item is in the public domain under the laws of the United States, but did not make a determination as to its copyright status under the copyright laws of other countries. This item may not be in the public domain under the laws of other countries. Though not required, if you want to credit us as the source, please use the following statement, "From The New York Public Library," and provide a link back to the item on our Digital Collections site. Doing so helps us track how our collection is used and helps justify freely releasing even more content in the future.

Type Of Resource

Still Image

Cite this item

MLA format

Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library. "La Walse" The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1810. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/356a6410-84f4-013d-2a38-0242ac110002

APA format

Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library. (1810). La Walse Retrieved from https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/356a6410-84f4-013d-2a38-0242ac110002

Chicago/Turabian Format

Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library. "La Walse" New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed November 13, 2025. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/356a6410-84f4-013d-2a38-0242ac110002

Wikipedia citation

<ref name=NYPL>{{cite web | url=https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/356a6410-84f4-013d-2a38-0242ac110002 | title= (still image) La Walse (1810) | author=Digital Collections, The New York Public Library | accessdate=November 13, 2025 | publisher=The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations}}</ref>