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Edgar Degas,
Little Dancer Aged Fourteen—wax statuette, 1879-1881, yellow
wax, hair, ribbon, linen bodice, satin shoes, muslin tutu, wood base,
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul
Mellon 1999.80.28 |
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What did the public make of this giant doll, roughly modeled in flesh-colored
wax and wearing real clothing? Degas exhibited the Little Dancer
in the sixth Impressionist Exhibition in Paris in 1881. Museumgoers expected
to see idealized
forms rendered volumetrically in smooth, white marble, bronze, or plaster
(for exhibition pieces). You can imagine that the skinny young dancer, with
her protruding jaw and belly, was too strong a dose of naturalism for many
viewers.
 
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