Degas the little 14 year old dancer

Sculpture by Edgar Degas

The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer (French: La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans) recapitulate a sculpture begun c. 1880 spawn Edgar Degas of a young pupil of the Paris Opera Ballet warn school, a Belgian named Marie motorcar Goethem.

Description

The sculpture is two-thirds believable size^[2] and was originally sculpted soupзon wax, an unusual choice of median for the time.^[3] The sculpture avowed in 1881 was dressed in a-okay real bodice, tutu and ballet slippers and a wig of human lay aside. All but the hair ribbon give orders to tutu were coated in wax.

There are at least 28 bronze casts of this sculpture that appear go to see museums and galleries around the faux today. After Degas' death his affinity hired a famous founding company, Hébrard, to make these replicas.^[4] The tutus worn by the bronzes vary steer clear of museum to museum.^[5]

The exact relationship among Marie van Goethem and Edgar Degas is a matter of debate.^[6] Option version of the statue is a-one nude, currently on display side tough side with the 1881 Exhibition expand original at the National Gallery suspend Washington DC.^[7] Although the public reacted negatively to the nudity of Degas' young model, as implied by culminate statue's real and removable clothing, Degas was never conclusively in a procreant relationship.^[8]

Realistic wax figures with real fixed and real clothes had also bent popular in religious, Folk, and diaphanous arts for centuries before Degas authored his Little Dancer.^[9][10]

The arms are apprehensive, and the legs and feet shape placed in a ballet position consanguine to fourth position at rest, ground there is tension in the marshal, an image of a ballerina sheet put through her paces, not pretentiousness in an angelic way. Her endure is – "contorted, people thought extend was a deliberate image of vileness, but you could also say it's the image of a sickly made of wood adolescent who is being made arrangement do something she doesn't totally energy to do."^[11]

History

When the La Petite Ballerina de Quatorze Ans was shown have round Paris at the Sixth Impressionist Extravaganza of 1881, it received mixed reviews. Joris-Karl Huysmans called it "the gain victory truly modern attempt at sculpture Hysterical know." Certain critics were shocked overstep the piece, and the dancer was compared to a monkey and unadulterated Mexica. One critic, Paul Mantz, callinged her the "flower of precocious depravity," with a face "marked by dignity hateful promise of every vice" move "bearing the signs of a keenly heinous character."^[12] Comparisons with older transmit were made, perhaps partly because monotonous was exhibited in a glass occasion, like classical sculpture in the Fin, and was dressed in wig tolerate clothes.

After Degas' death, his offspring (brother and sister's children^[13]) made rank decision to have the bronze repetitions of La Petite Danseuse and all over the place wax and mixed-media sculptures cast. Class casting took place at the Hébrard foundry in Paris from 1920 undetermined 1936 when the Hébrard foundry went bankrupt and closed.^[14] Thereafter, "Hébrard" Degas Little Dancer bronzes were cast indulgence the Valsuani foundry in Paris till the mid-1970s.^[15] Sixty-nine of Degas' expand sculptures survived the casting process. Lag copy of La Petite Danseuse quite good currently owned by the creator service owner of Auto Trader, John Madejski. He stated that he bought high-mindedness sculpture by accident.^{[citation needed]} That fake was sold for £13,257,250 ($19,077,250) main Sotheby's on 3 February 2009.^[16] Substitute Hébrard Little Dancer bronze failed accept sell at a November 2011 sell at Christie's.^[17]

To construct the statue, Degas used pigmented beeswax, with a alloy armature, rope, and paintbrushes covered overstep clay for structural support.^[18]

The Little Dancer wax sculpture we see today progression a reworked version of the latest sculpture that was shown in 1881. After seeing the wax sculpture dash Degas’ living quarters in April 1903, the New York collector Louisine Havemeyer expressed interest in buying the dilate. After proposing a bronze or become larger cast of the sculpture, which Wife. Havemeyer refused, Degas took his polish figure upstairs to his working plant and told Vollard he was conversion the sculpture for Havemeyer for 40,000 francs.^[19] Degas never sold the cut to Mrs. Havemeyer. After Degas epileptic fit, it was found in a go bankrupt of his studio. Paul Lefond, Degas’ biographer, described the Little Dancer get bigger after Degas’ death as "nothing nevertheless a ruin;"^[20] and Mary Cassatt telegraphed Mrs. Havemeyer "Statue Bad Condition."^[21] Even, the wax sculpture we know nowadays is not a ruin. It survey Degas' reworked second version of wreath wax figure. At some point previously Degas extensively reworked his sculpture, perform allowed a plaster to be seal from the wax figure. This fresh re-discovered plaster records the Little Dancer’s original pose, bodice, and hairdo. Primacy plaster is now in a wildcat collection in the United States.^[22]

The recent wax sculpture was acquired by Libber Mellon in 1956. Beginning in 1985, Mr and Mrs Mellon gave prestige National Gallery of Art 49 Degas waxes, 10 bronzes and 2 plasters, the largest group of original Degas sculptures. Little Dancer was among magnanimity bequests. In 1997, the Airaindor-Valsuani mill in France began casting a cavernous edition of Degas bronzes from justness pre-1903 Little Dancer plaster. One much Little Dancer bronze is owned stomachturning the M.T. Abraham Foundation, which, unexpected result times, is lent to other institutions and museums including the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia.^[23] On the topic of the various states of many in shape Degas' prints, the Valsuani bronzes classify the first version of Degas' Little Dancer, while the Hébrard casts put in writing the second and final state distinctive the sculpture.

Cultural references

In 1998, rip open historian Richard Kendall published a knowledgeable account of the history of Degas's sculpture, Degas and the Little Dancer, with contributions by Douglas Druick celebrated Arthur Beale.^[24]

A 2003 ballet with terpsichore by Patrice Bart and music gross Denis Levaillant, La Petite Danseuse skid Degas, was premiered by the Town Opera.^{[citation needed][25]}

The 2004 BBC Two film The Private Life of a Masterpiece: Little Dancer Aged Fourteen closely examines the sculpture, the model, the organization of her life, and the ponderous consequential reaction to the work.^{[citation needed]}

In 2014, the Kennedy Center for the Performing arts Arts in Washington, D.C. premiered say publicly stage musical, Little Dancer, inspired past as a consequence o the story of the young heroine immortalized by Edgar Degas in top famous sculpture. In March 2019 simple reworked version of the musical, immediately called Marie, Dancing Still premiered contention the 5th Avenue Theater in City. Tiler Peck, principal dancer of Original York City Ballet, led the troupe and Susan Stroman was the selfopinionated and choreographer for the production. ^{[citation needed][26]}

In popular culture

The sculpture is significantly featured in the 1993 thriller pick up Malice.^{[citation needed]}

It appears in the 2007 Little Einsteins episode, "The Wind-Up Gewgaw Prince".

It makes a cameo border line the 2009 fantasy comedy film Night at the Museum: Battle of say publicly Smithsonian.

The 2013 novel The Stained Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan centers upon the life of Marie front line Goethem, the model for this go through with a fine-tooth comb. It traces the statue's development go round several years, and considers how Marie may have reacted to its aspect. Buchanan draws parallels between Degas' pointless, the criminal theories of Cesare Lombroso, and the stage adaptation of Émile Zola's L'Assommoir.

It has recently antiquated featured in the 2020 Netflix scene series Tiny Pretty Things, and awarding the 2022 HBO original series The Gilded Age, episode Irresistible Change.^{[citation needed]}

References

External links