Edgar Degas “Petite Danseuse de quatorze ans”

1.Edgar Degas Étude de nu pour la “Petite Danseuse de quatorze ans”

Edgar DegasÉtude de nu pour la “Petite

Danseuse de quatorze ans”

2. d i c k i n s o n

d i c k i n s o n




Bronze, dark brown and reddish brown patina

Height: 72.5 cm. (28 3/8 in.)

Stamped with the foundry mark Cire Perdu A.A. Hébrard 56/HER D on the side

of its base; inscribed with the signature Degas on top of the base

Original wax model conceived between 1878 and 1880

Bronze cast between 1919 and 1937 by the Hébrard foundry in Paris, in a lettered

edition of 20 casts marked A through T, two casts marked 56/HER (for the

foundry; the original contract only authorised one of these), one cast marked 56/

HER.D (for the heirs of Degas; the present cast), and several unauthorised casts,

including one marked MODÈLE (kept by Hébrard), one marked AP (for Albino

Palazzolo, director of the Hébrard foundry), one unlettered cast later owned by

Nelly Hébrard, and possibly others.

Provenance

Adrien A. Hébrard, Paris.

The heirs of Edgar Degas, Paris.

Private Collection, Paris, since 1989;

And by descent to the present owner.

Literature

P. Gsell, “Edgar Degas, Statuaire”, in La Renaissance de l’art français et des industries de

luxe, Paris, Dec. 1918 (another cast illus. p. 376).

P.-A. Lemoisne, “Les Statuettes de Degas”, in Art et Décoration, Paris, Sept.-Oct.

1919 (wax model illus. p. 112).

Catalogue Hébrard, Paris, 1921, no. 37 (another cast illus.).

G. Janneau, “Les Sculptures de Degas”, in Renaissance de l’art français et des industries

de luxe, Paris, July 1921 (another cast illus. p. 352).

G. Bazin, “Degas Sculpteur”, L’Amour de l’Art, Paris, July 1931 (another cast illus.

p. 294).




J. Rewald, Degas: Works in Sculpture, A Complete Catalogue, New York, 1944, no. XIX

(another cast illus. pp. 57-61).

L. Browse, Degas Dancers, Boston, 1949 (another cast illus. pl. 95).

P. Borel, Les Sculptures inédites de Degas: Choix de cires originales, Geneva, 1949 (wax

model illus.).

J. Rewald, Degas Sculpture, New York, 1957, no. XIX (another cast illus. p. 144).

C.W. Millard, The Sculpture of Edgar Degas, Princeton, 1976 (wax model illus. pls. 23

and 24).

J. Rewald, The Complete Sculpture of Edgar Degas, Lefevre Gallery, London, 1976, pp.

14, 56 (another cast illus. no. 37).

J. and M. Guillaud, eds., Degas, Form and Space, Paris and New York, 1984, no. 154

(another cast illus. p. 178).

D. Sutton, Edgar Degas, Life and Work, New York, 1986, no. 170 (another cast illus.

p. 186).

F. Minervino and S. de Naurois, Tout l’oeuvre peint de Degas, Paris, 1988, no. S37

(another cast illus. p. 142).

A. Roquebert, Degas, Paris, 1988 (another cast illus. fig. 61).

R. Thomson, Degas, les nus, Paris, 1988 (wax model illus. p. 123, fig. 112).

J. Sutherland Boggs et al, Degas, exh. cat., Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais,

Paris; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; and The Metropolitan Museum of Art,

New York, 1988-89 (another cast illus. pp. 349-50).

J. Rewald, Degas’ Complete Sculpture: A Catalogue Raisonne, San Francisco, 1990, no.

XIX (another cast illus. p. 76).

F. Hovart and A. Pingeot, Degas Sculptures, Paris, 1991, no. 37 (another cast illus. pp.

36, 37 and 171).

S. Campbell, “Degas: The Sculptures, A Catalogue Raisonne”, in Apollo, London,

August 1995, no. 56 (another cast illus. p. 38).

R. Kendall, Degas and the Little Dancer, exh. cat., Joslyn Museum, Omaha; Sterling

and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown; and The Baltimore Museum of

Art, 1998-99 (another cast illus. pl. 39).

J.S. Czestochowski and A. Pingeot, Degas Sculptures, Catalogue Raisonné of the Bronzes,

Memphis, 2002, no. 56, p. 231 (another cast illus.)

S. Glover Lindsay, D.S. Barbour and S.G. Sturman, Edgar Degas Sculpture, Washington,

D.C., 2010, pp. 144-55, nos. 17 and 18 (another cast illus. p. 151).

J. Devonyar and R. Kendall, Degas and the Ballet: Picturing Movement, exh. cat., Royal

Academy of Arts, London, 2011, pp. 72-85 (wax model illus. p. 77, fig. 30).



Étude de nu pour la “Petite Danseuse de quatorze ans” belongs to Degas’ most

beloved and celebrated theme: dancers at the Paris Opéra. The subject of

dancers – on stage, during rehearsals, or resting between performances

– had captured his interest early in his career, and sustained his attention

throughout his life. When his great American patron Louisine Havemeyer

asked Degas why he focused so singularly on the ballet, he replied “Because,

madame, it is all that is left us of the combined movement of the Greeks”

(quoted in A. Forge and F. Gordon, Degas, London, 1988, p. 264). Indeed, it

was the figure in motion that fascinated Degas, and dancers provided him

with a constant supply of moving forms. He explored the subject in a wide

range of media: painting, drawing, pastel, sculpture, and even print. Like

his contemporaries, Degas was aware of the work of early photographers

such as Muybridge and Marey, and his sculptures of dancers in particular

can be seen as a response to their photographic series. In 1895, it seems

Degas even acquired a camera of his own (Devonyar and Kendall, op. cit.,

London, 2011, p. 186).

Degas was subject to criticism for his rejection of the idealising tendencies

of the Academy in favour of an honest portrayal of his ballerina subjects,

who were depicted as often in casual moments as during a performance. We

see them stretch, yawn and slouch, and he frequently chose as his subjects

gawky adolescents rather than elegant principal dancers. In Étude de nu pour

la “Petite Danseuse de quatorze ans”, we see his young model standing in the

same “casual fourth” position she adopts in the Petite Danseuse. The model

is traditionally identified as Marie van Goethem (b. 17 Feb. 1864), based in

part on an inscription on a drawing in which she is shown, from a variety

of perspectives, standing in this same pose. Relatively little is known about

Marie, who is believed to have posed for several other works by Degas

around the same time, including La Classe de Dance (L.479; Philadelphia

Museum of Art). She was the middle of three sisters, all of whom were

enrolled as ballet students at the Opéra.

Edgar DegasSelf-portrait in Library (Portrait

Bust in Background), 1895

Gelatin silver print

18.3 x 24.3 cm. (71/3 x 91/2 in.)

Following spread:

Eadweard Muybridge‘Woman Dancing (Fancy)’, 1887

Plate 187 of Animal Locomotion

Collotype

18.4 x 41.7 cm. (71/4 x 161/2 in.)

“They call me the painter of dancers, not understanding that for me the dance is a pretext for…rendering movement.”

Edgar Degas


By 1882 she had evidently become well known as an artist’s model, earning

a note in the Parisian daily L’Evénement: “Mlle Van Goeuthen [sic]…poses

for painters. Therefore frequents the Brasserie des Martyrs and Le Rat Mort”

(quoted in R. Kendall, op. cit., 1998, pp. 346-47). Degas made both clothed

and nude studies of Marie, from all angles, apparently following his own

written instructions in a sketchbook: “Make a suite [of drawings] of a

dancer’s arm movements, or of legs that don’t move, turning around them

oneself, etc…study from all perspectives, a figure or an object, it doesn’t

matter which.”

The Petite Danseuse de quatorze ans, which evolved from this work, was the

only sculpture ever exhibited by Degas during his lifetime, at the Sixth

Salon des Impressionistes in 1881. It is universally regarded as Degas’s supreme

achievement in sculpture, and one of the most innovative and significant

sculptures of the modern era. Indeed, it prompted Renoir to declare Degas

“the greatest living sculptor” (quoted in A. Vollard, Renoir: An Intimate

Memoir, New York, 1925, p. 39). The figure was modelled in wax, like

the Étude – Degas did not make any bronze casts during his lifetime –

and embellished with a muslin tutu, real hair, and a satin ribbon. It was a

considerable accomplishment for an artist who never trained as a sculptor.

Petite Danseuse was exhibited alongside works by Gauguin, Pissarro, Cassatt

and Morisot, among others. Critical opinions were divided: some praised the

naturalism of the figure’s appearance, standing just over a meter tall, while

others found this uncanny realism shocking: Marie was not a star dancer,

and she was dressed as though for class rather than for a performance.

Critic Charles Ephrussi celebrated it as “a truly modern effort” while Nina

de Villard predicted that it would become “the leading expression of a new

art” (quoted in R. Kendall, op. cit., 1998, p. 45). The author and critic Joris-

Karl Huysmans called the sculpture “the only truly modern initiative that

I know of in sculpture, and declared “the fact is that at one fell swoop, M.

Degas has overthrown the traditions of sculpture, as he has for a long time

Edgar DegasClasse de Ballet (Salle de Danse), c.1878

Oil on canvas

81 x 76 cm. (317/8 x 297/8 in.)

Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA

Edgar DegasTrois Études d’une Danseuse Nue,

c. 1878 – 1879

Charcoal heightened with white

chalk on grey wove paper

47.7 x 62.3 cm. (183/4 x 241/2 in.)

Private Collection


been shaking up the conventions of painting”. He further observed that the

young dancer seemed poised “to walk off her pedestal” (quoted in Boggs

et al, op. cit., 1988, p. 343).

There are certain distinct differences between the Étude and Petite Danseuse,

beyond the costume, that make this sculpture an autonomous work in its

own right. Although the title “Study” suggests that the Étude was merely a

preparatory work, the delicately modelled and refined surface of the wax

original has led some scholars to suppose that it may have been intended as

a gift to Mrs. Havemeyer. She had hoped to acquire the wax original of the

Petite Danseuse (see S.G. Lindsay et al, op. cit., 2010, p. 144). It has also been

pointed out, in a recent monograph on Degas’ sculpture published by the

National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., that the position of the right

foot in the Étude has been altered, and it is placed at a more diagonal angle

than that of the Petite Danseuse. The authors continue: “The pose is more

complex than the dressed figure’s. Her canted verticality and hipshot stance

are more pronounced, with her torso subtly shifting position” (S.G. Lindsay

et al, op. cit. p. 148). The Étude is approximately three-quarters the size of

the Petite Danseuse.

Although Degas did not create bronze casts, he did cast three of his

figures in plaster, possibly after his friend the sculptor Albert Bartholomé

introduced him to Adrien-A. Hébrard and his Milanese foundry director

Albino Palazzolo. Degas expressed reservations about the permanence of

bronze, and the inability of an artist to make changes once the sculpture

was cast, declaring: “It’s too much responsibility to leave behind you

anything in bronze, that substance is one that lasts for eternity!” (quoted in

A. Vollard, Degas (1834 – 1917), Paris, 1924, pp. 112-13). However, he never

completely lost interest in the notion of working in bronze, and at certain

moments he appeared to be on the brink of committing to a cast. Ambroise

Vollard recalled one such dialogue with Degas: “One day he told me about

a Danseuse (ballerina)…‘This time I think I have her. One or two more short

sittings and Hébrard…will be able to come.’ The next day, I found the

ballerina reduced to a ball of wax. Seeing my astonishment, he said, ‘You


are thinking most of all, Vollard, about the value of the thing, but had you

given me a hat full of diamonds, the happiness I have experienced could

not rival the pleasure in destroying it, just to have the pleasure of starting it

all over again.’” (quoted in A. Vollard, op. cit., pp. 112-13).

On 13 May 1918, nearly eight months after Degas’s death, his heirs

signed a contract with Hébrard to cast twenty-two examples of each of

the sculptures, with twenty sets available for sale, one set – the first, and,

therefore, the finest set – reserved for the Degas heirs, and a set reserved for

the foundry. (There were, in addition, several further unauthorised sets: one

kept by Hébrard and marked “MODÈLE”, and an unknown number of

“test” casts by Palazzolo marked “AP”, “FR MODÈLE” (founder’s model),

“FR” (founder), and possibly others; see Czestochowski and Pingeot, op.

cit., 2002, p. 15 for further information).

Edgar DegasLa Petite Danseuse de Quatorze ans,

c. 1878 – 1881

Pigmented beeswax, clay, metal

armature, rope, paintbrushes, human

hair, silk and linen ribbon, cotton

faille bodice, cotton and silk tutu,

linen slippers, on wooden base

Overall without base 98.9 x 34.7 x

35.2 cm. (39 x 135/8 x 137/8 in.)

Collection of Mr. & Mrs. Paul Mellon

National Gallery of Art,

Washington, D.C.


Not all of Degas’ original models survived, as these were extremely fragile

pieces crafted from a combination of pigmented wax and plastilene, a

non-drying modelling clay, sometimes constructed on a wire armature.

Fortunately, Palazzolo was able to preserve the surviving wax originals by

employing a complex casting process in which a duplicate wax was created

for each sculpture: “In Milan, Palazzolo had learned a method from the

sculptor Barzagli [sic; it must be Francesco Barzaghi]. He covered the

figurines with clay and then wrapped them entirely in plaster. When the

plaster had dried, he opened it and replaced the clay with a special gel. The

gel fills the space between the model and the mold and hardens (without

heat so the wax does not melt). When the gel mold has hardened, it is

opened and the original removed, safe and sound. After a core is installed

to reinforce the piece, hot wax is poured into the mold. Once that had

cooled, the copy of the original is removed. This is the copy that can be

cast according to the classical “lost-wax process” with the added advantage

of permitting a comparison between the bronze and the preserved original

wax.” (Czestochowski and Pingeot, op. cit., 2002, p. 32).

The resulting bronzes met with a mixed reception from the public, although

Mary Cassatt wrote with great foresight to Mrs. Havemeyer “I have studied

Degas’s bronzes for months. I believe he will live to be greater as a sculptor

than as a painter.” This comment was presumably in Mrs. Havemeyer’s

mind when she became the first to reserve a complete set of the bronze

casts, set A.

Previous page, left:

Edgar DegasÉtude d’une Danseuse Nue, c. 1878 – 1881

Black chalk and red charcoal on

mauve-pink laid paper

48.1 x 30.6 cm. (19 x 12 in.)

National Gallery, Oslo

Opposite page, clockwise from top:Edgar DegasÉtudes de Danseuse, c. 1878 – 1881 Black chalk, conté crayon, and pink

chalk, heightened with white chalk,

on blue paper

47.5 x 62.8 cm. (183/4 x 243/4 in.)

The Morgan Library & Museum,

Thaw Collection, New York

Edgar DegasQuatre Études d’une Danseuse, c. 1878

– 1881

Chalk and charcoal heightened with

grey wash and white on buff paper

49 x 31.7 cm. (191/3 x 121/2 in.)

Museé d’Orsay, Paris and Musée du

Louvre, Paris

Edgar DegasCinq Études d’une Paire de Jambes

(Études pour ‘La Petite Danseuse de

Quatorze ans’), c. 1878 – 1881

Pencil, charcoal and pastel on green

paper

48.2 x 30.5 cm. (19 x 12 in.)

Private Collection


Over the course of the past two decades, there have been more casts of

the Petite Danseuse offered at auction than there have been casts of the

Étude. Furthermore, thirteen of the twenty casts of Étude de nu pour la “Petite

Danseuse de quatorze ans” are in museum collections:

A: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

B: Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo

C: Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague

D: Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio

F: National Museum and Galleries of Wales, Cardiff

G: National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh

H: National Museum, Stockholm

N: National Gallery, Oslo

O: The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

P: Musée d’Orsay, Paris

R: Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen

S: Museu de Arte de São Paulo, Brazil

T: San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego



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Edgar Degas “Petite Danseuse de quatorze ans”