Parisian audience was fascinated by their exotic and vibrating art and their highly colourful costumes. The company of the Royal Theatre of Madrid performed at the Hippodrome from 12 August to 2 November 1862, and its ballet Flor de Sevilla aroused the enthusiasm of all of Paris.
Manet succeeded in arranging for the main dancers, including Lola Melea, known as Lola of Valencia, to come and pose for him in the vast studio of Alfred Stevens. Baudelaire wrote a famous quatrain while Zacharie Astruc composed a serenade.
Striking the same pose as the Duchess of Alba by Goya, a painting which was in Paris at that time, Lola of Valencia first appeared in 1863 against a plain background that Manet transformed, for his pavilion at the Universal Exhibition of 1867, by depicting the wings of a theatre and spectators in box on the extreme right.
Flat-frame printing, also known as "Impression à la Lyonnaise", is a traditional technique that involves passing flat frames (stencils) successively over the fabric, which is then glued on long heating tables. The speed of this process means printing
"In other words, when one color is printed, the previous one is already dry. This makes it possible to print designs of great complexity and finesse. This technique, invented in the 19th century, is now rare in France, with only a few well-known brands still using it.
Close
