Henriette Schlosser
in La muette de Portici

A carte-de-visite portrait of the ballet dancer Henriette Schlosser. There is some confusion over her given name; Ivor Guest has her as ‘Eugénie Schlosser’ but other sources give ‘Henriette.'

She is seen here in Daniel Auber’s La muette de Portici [The Dumb Girl of Portici]. This particular production opened on 19 January 1863. Originally titled Masaniello after its central character, the plot concerns a Neapolitan uprising against Spanish rule in 1647. A painting by Hébert inspired the costumes. The conventional ballet skirts have been discarded in favour of a longer, fuller skirt and on her head she is wearing the traditional bonnet of Neapolitan peasant-women.