Edgar Degas “Little Ballerina” 17″ Statue

Description

“La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans” (“Little Dancer of Fourteen Years”), c. 1881, is a sculpture by Edgar Degas of a young dance student named Marie van Goethem. The sculpture “Little Dancer of Fourteen Years” was originally made in wax, an unusual choice of material for a sculpture of this time, dressed in a cotton skirt with a hair ribbon, and sitting on a wooden base. It wasn’t until 1922 when it was cast in bronze. The relationship between Marie van Goethem and Edgar Degas is one of debate. It was usual in 1880 for the ‘Petits Rats’ of the Opera of Paris to seek protectors from among the wealthy visitors at the back door of the opera. When the “La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans” was shown in Paris at the Sixth Impressionist Exhibition of 1881, it received mixed reviews. The majority of critics were shocked by the piece. They thought it was ugly, that it looked like a medical specimen, in part because Degas exhibited it inside a glass case. Some considered the head and face grotesque and primitive. His heirs (wife and daughter) made the decision to have 74 of them cast in bronze. The casting went on at the Hibrard foundry in Paris from 1920 until the mid-20th Century, producing the posthumous Degas bronzes that can be seen in many museums. Sixty-nine original sculptures in wax and mixed-media survived the casting process.

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