The Dance Lesson by Edgar Degas

Fourth Position Front on Left Leg by Edgar Degas

Arabesque over the Right Leg, Right Hand near the Ground, Left Arm Outstretched by Edgar Degas

Edgar Degas, Fourth Position Front, on the Left Leg, c. 1883/1888, brown wax and cork, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon 1999.80.8

Edgar Degas, Arabesque over the Right Leg, Right Hand near the Ground, Left Arm Outstretched (First Arabesque Penchée), c.1882/1895, brown wax, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon 1999.80.1

While The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer was the only sculpture Degas exhibited during his lifetime, he made more than one hundred wax sculptures of dancers, bathing women, and horses and jockeys. Most were roughly modeled, almost like three-dimensional sketches. Just as he drew every part and motion of his subjects, he used sculpture to fully understand each nuance of a figure’s balance, gesture, and movement.

In the "battement" and "arabesque" sculptures, the dancers balance on one leg, the other leg extending back or front. The arms stretch from the center to counterbalance the figure. For Degas, the arabesque was the perfect gesture for exploring movement in space and the delicate equipoise of the balancing figure.