Jean-Auguste Barre

Private collection, Europe

Emma Livry (1842-1863) was a ballerina of exceptional talent, whose career was tragically ended when she was severely burned at a rehearsal aged only twenty-one. She made her debut in La Sylphide in October 1858, and in 1860 the great ballerina Marie Taglioni choreographed Le Papillon for her, the role in which she is represented here. 

Livry's dramatic accident shocked the theatrical world. The contemporary poet and critic Théophile Gautier wrote:
'... she played the part of a butterfly... She could imitate its charming, capricious flight as it settled on a flower without bending its stem. But she resembled a butterfly too closely, for she too burnt her wings in the flame...'