place and improvise a brilliant solo. This feat secured her status as a principal ballerina. She had many titled admirers whom she nearly ruined by her extravagances, among others Louis de Bourbon, Count of Clermont. At his wish she retired from the stage from 1736 to 1741, resuming her dancing career from 1741 to 1751. After finally retiring, she received a government pension. In her time she appeared in 78 ballets or operas, always to the delight of the public. Nicolas Lancret painted a famous portrait of her that exists in several versions including works now held at the Wallace Collection, London, and at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (shown right). In them she wears heeled shoes and is poised à demi point. A ballet, Camargo, based on the incident when she and her sister Madeleine were abducted by the Comte de Melun in May 1728 was created by Marius Petipa and the composer Léon Minkus for the Russian Imperial Ballet, premiering December 19, 1872 with the famous ballerina, Adèle Grantzow, as Marie Anne Camargo. The work was later revived in 1901 for the Russian Imperial Ballet by Lev Ivanov for Pierina Legnani. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, however, the ballet was never performed again. Death She died on 28 April 1770, thirteen days after her 60th birthday, in Paris. See also Camargo Society - A London ballet company (1930–1933) named after La Camargo Women in dance Troupe of the Comédie-Française in 1755 References 1710 births 1770 deaths French ballerinas Entertainers from Brussels Belgian emigrants to France Dancers from Paris French people of Spanish descent 18th-century French ballet dancers Camargo