Little Dancer Aged Fourteen

1878-1881

Edgar Degas

Sculptor, French, 1834 - 1917

Sculpted with rich brown wax, a young ballerina stands with her arms straight, hands clasped behind her back, and one foot in front of the other on a square wooden base. Her body is angled to our left in this photograph. Both feet are splayed outward, and her right foot is placed far in front of her left. Bangs cover her forehead, and she has a heart-shaped, upturned face with a squat nose and slightly pursed lips. Her heavy-lidded eyes are nearly closed and her hair is pulled back and tied with a wide, cream-white ribbon. She wears a fabric costume with a sleeveless, gold-colored bodice, a gray tulle skirt, and ballet slippers. Her body is sculpted from dark brown wax, and a layer of wax covers her hair, bodice, and ballet slippers.

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At the sixth impressionist exhibition in the spring of 1881, Edgar Degas presented the only sculpture that he would ever exhibit in public. The Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, the title given by the artist, has become one of the most beloved works of art, well known through the many bronze casts produced from this unique original statuette, following the artist's death.

The sculpture was not so warmly received when she first appeared. The critics protested almost unanimously that she was ugly, but had to acknowledge the work's astonishing realism as well as its revolutionary nature. The mixed media of the Little Dancer, basically a wax statuette dressed in real clothes, was very innovative, most of all because she was considered a modern subject—a student dancer of the Paris Opera Ballet. Marie van Goethem, the model for the figure, was the daughter of a Belgian tailor and a laundress; her working–class background was typical of the Paris Opera school's ballerinas. These dancers were known as "petits rats de l'opéra," literally opera rats, presumably because of their scurrying around the opera stage in tiny, fast–moving steps. But the derogatory association of the name with dirt and poverty was also intentional. Young, pretty, and poor, the ballet students also were potential targets of male "protectors." Degas understood the predicament of the Little Dancer—what the contemporary reviewer Joris–Karl Huysmans called her "terrible reality." The Little Dancer is a very poignant, deeply felt work of art in which a little girl of fourteen, in spite of the difficult position in which she is placed, both physically and psychologically, struggles for a measure of dignity: her head is held high, though her arms and hands are uncomfortably stretched behind her back.

In the context of the evolution of sculpture, the Little Dancer is a groundbreaking work of art. The liberating idea that any medium or technique necessary to convey the desired effect is fair game may be traced back to this sculpture. Degas represented a working–class subject, though not an everyday one, with both realism and compassion, but without moralizing. In so doing, he captured with brilliant simplicity the difficult tension between art and life.
 

Four Dancers (en)
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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    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

  • Credit Line

    Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

  • Dimensions

    overall without base: 98.9 x 34.7 x 35.2 cm (38 15/16 x 13 11/16 x 13 7/8 in)
    weight: 49 lb. (22.226 kg)

  • Accession

    1999.80.28

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Article:  Edgar Degas Only Made One “Little Dancer.” And It’s Ours.

How our conservators have cared for the fragile wax sculpture, preserving it decades longer than anyone thought possible.

Four light-skinned ballerinas with russet-orange hair tied back in buns adjust the straps of their bodices as they gather close together, their bodies and wide, knee-length tutus taking up the left half of this horizontal painting. The background or backdrop beyond them shows a grove of deep green trees to our left and a sunset view of meadows leading back to trees to our right. Three of the dancers stand in a row that extends from the lower left corner to our right and away from us. All three wear rust-orange bodices over tutus that are painted loosely with flecks of pale celery green and buttercup yellow against a muted royal-blue background. Their bodices and upper bodies are outlined with black. The woman closest to us stands with her body angled to our right. Her face turns away as she looks to her left and adjusts that shoulder strap. The two dancers farther from us stand with their backs to us, their bodies angled away from us to our left. The middle dancer looks back over her right shoulder as she lifts the other elbow to adjust that strap. The third dancer in the row holds both hands to her right strap as she looks off into the distance, to our left. The fourth ballerina, to our far left beyond this trio, stands with the arm we can see, her left, lifted with her hand held high as she looks off to our right. Her bodice is a brighter carrot orange, and is more loosely painted. The green foliage behind the dancers extends off the top edge of the painting. The pale sage-green field to the right stretches before puffy, rounded trees daubed with mauve-pink highlights. The coral-pink and golden yellow sky is streaked with lavender-gray clouds. The artist signed his name in red paint with tiny, almost illegible letters in the lower right corner, “Degas.”

Scholarly Article:  Degas's Dancers

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

The artist [1834-1917]; his heirs;[1] Adrien-Aurélien Hébrard [1865-1937], Paris;[2] his daughter, Nelly Hébrard [1904-1985], Paris;[3] consigned 1955 to (M. Knoedler & Company, Inc., New York); purchased May 1956 by Paul Mellon, Upperville, Virginia; bequest 1999 to NGA.
[1] The artist's heirs were René De Gas, his last surviving brother, who lived in Paris, and the four (of seven) surviving children of his sister Marguerite, who had died in Argentina in 1895. (His other deceased sister Thérèse left no descendants.) Marguerite's children were: Jeanne Fevre, unmarried and acting on both her own behalf and as the representative of her sister, Madeleine Marie Pauline Fevre, a Carmelite nun; Henri Jean Auguste Marie Fevre, an industrialist who lived in Marseille; and Gabriel Edgar Eugène Fevre, an agent in Montevideo, Uruguay. See Anne Pingeot and Frank Horvat, Degas sculptures, Paris, 1991, and Anne Pingeot, "The casting of Degas' sculptures: Completing the story," Apollo (August 1995): 60-63.
[2] On 13 May 1918 a contract was signed between the artist's heirs and the Hébrard foundry authorizing the reproduction of Degas' sculptures in bronze. Of the approximately 150 statuettes found in the artist's studio after his death, 74 figures were ultimately cast in bronze. The contract stipulated that two complete sets were to be cast, one for the heirs and one for the foundry, and authorized a limit of twenty casts of each figure to be offered for sale. The casting process took at least thirteen years, from 1919 to 1932, and according to the contract, the original figures became the property of the foundry. See Sara Campbell, "Degas' bronzes: Introduction," Apollo (August 1995): 6-10.
[3] The article by Anne Pingeot referenced in note 1 provides details of the role of Hébrard's daughter in the history of the foundry, and its work in casting the bronzes.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1881

  • 6me Exposition de Peinture, 35 bd. des Capucines, Paris, 1881, no. 12, as Petite Danseuse de quatorze ans (statuette en cire).

1920

  • Galerie A.A. Hébrard, Paris, 1920.

  • Possibly Trois siècles d'art français, Paris, possibly 1920s-1930s.

1921

  • Exposition des Sculptures de Degas, Galerie A.A. Hébrard, Paris, 1921, no. 73.

1924

  • Exposition Degas au profit de la Ligue Franco-Anglo-Américaine contre le cancer: Peintures, pastels et dessins, sculptures, eaux-fortes, lithographies et monotypes, Galeries Georges Petit (sculpture shown at Galerie A.A. Hébrard), Paris, 1924, possibly no. 290 or not in cat.

1929

  • Possibly on loan to the Musée du Louvre, Paris, 1929.

1955

  • Edgar Degas 1834-1917: Original Wax Sculptures, M. Knoedler & Company, Inc., New York, 1955, no. 20, repro., as Ballet Dancer, Dressed.

1956

  • Sculpture by Degas, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, 1956.

1991

  • Art for the Nation: Gifts in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1991, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

1999

  • An Enduring Legacy: Masterpieces from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1999-2000, as Little Dancer Fourteen Years Old (Ballet Dancer, Dressed), no cat.

2014

  • Degas's Little Dancer, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2014-2015, brochure, cover repro.

2019

  • Degas at the Opera, Musée d'Orsay, Paris; National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2019-2020, no. 275, repro. (shown only in Washington).

Bibliography

1880

  • Goetschy, Gustave. "Indépendants et impressionistes." Le Voltaire (6 April 1880): 2.

1881

  • Bertall [Charles-Albert d'Arnoux]. "Exposition: Des Peintres intransigeants et nihilistes: 36, boulevard des Capucines." Paris-Journal (21 April 1881): 1.

  • de Charry, Paul. "Les Indépendants." Le Pays (22 April 1881): 3.

  • Claretie, Jules. "La Vie à Paris: Les Artistes indépendants." La Vie à Paris: 1881. Paris, 1881: 150-151. First published, with some variation, in Le Temps, 5 April 1881: 3.

  • Comtesse Louise. "Lettres familières sur l'art: Salon de 1881." La France nouvelle (1-2 May 1881): 3.

  • Enault, Louis. "Chronique." Moniteur des arts (15 April 1881): 1.

  • Ephrussi, Charles. "Exposition des artistes indépendants." La Chronique des Arts et de la Curiosité (16 April 1881): 126.

  • Goetschy, Gustave. "Exposition des artistes indépendants." Le Voltaire (5 April 1881): 1-2.

  • Mantz, Paul. "Exposition des oeuvres des artistes indépendants." Le Temps (23 April 1881): 3.

  • de Mont, Élie [Elisée-Louis de Montagnac]. "L'Exposition du boulevard des Capucines." La Civilization (21 April 1881): 2.

  • Our Lady Correspondent. [Untitled, and unsigned, review of the Exposition des oeuvres des artistes indépendants]. Artist 2 (1 May 1881): 153. In Impressionists in England: The Critical Reception. Edited by Kate Flint. London, 1984: 41-43.

  • Trianon, Henry. "Sixième Exposition de peinture par un groupe d'artistes: 35, boulevard es Capucines." Le Constitutionnel (24 April 1881): 2-3.

  • de Villars, Nina [Marie-Anne Gaillard, Mme Hector de Callias Villard]. "Variétés: Exposition des artistes indépendants." _Le Courrier du Soir (23 April 1881): 2.

1882

  • Champier, Victor. "La Société des artistes indépendants." L'Année artistique: 1881. Paris, 1882: 167-169.

1883

  • Huysmans, Joris-Karl. "L'Exposition des indépendants en 1881." In L'Art Moderne. Paris, 1883: 225-257.

1918

  • Gsell, Paul. "Edgar Degas, statuaire." La Renaissance de l'Art Français et des Industries de Luxe (December 1918): 373-378.

  • Thiébault-Sisson, François. "La Vie artistique Edgar Degas: L'Homme et l'oeuvre." Le Temps (18 May 1918): 3.

  • Lafond, Paul. Degas. 2 vols. Paris, 1918-1919: 2(1919):64-66.

1919

  • Lemoisne, Paul-André. "Les statuettes de Degas." Art et Décoration 214 (September-October 1919): 109-117, esp. 111-113, repro.

  • "Edgar Degas, a Sculptor as Well as Painter: Plastic Studies by the Great French Master." Vanity Fair 12, no. 1 (March 1919): 49-50, repro.

1924

  • Jamot, Paul. Degas. Paris, 1924: 127, 149, pl. 52.

1944

  • Rewald, John. Degas, Works in Sculpture: A Complete Catalogue. Translated by John Coleman and Noel Moulton. New York, 1944: no. XX, repro.

1946

  • Lemoisne, Paul André. Degas et son Oeuvre. 4 vols. Paris, 1946-1949: 1(1946):127-128, 246, 249-250.

1961

  • Havemeyer, Louisine B. Sixteen to Sixty: Memoirs of a Collector. New York, 1961: 254-255.

1970

  • Reff, Theodore. "Degas' Sculpture, 1880-1884." Art Quarterly 33, no. 3 (1970): 276-298, esp. 277.

1976

  • Millard, Charles W. The Sculpture of Edgar Degas. Princeton, 1976: 8-9, 23, 27-29, 60-63, 98-99, fig. 26, color pl. opp. p. 62.

  • Reff, Theodore. "Edgar Degas' 'Little Ballet Dancer of Fourteen Years'." Arts Magazine 51, no. 1 (September 1976): 66-69.

  • Reff, Theodore. Degas: The Artist's Mind. New York and London, 1976: 239-248 (reprint Cambridge, Massachusetts 1987).

1988

  • Failing, Patricia. "Cast in Bronze: The Degas Dilemma." Art News 87, no. 1 (January 1988): 136-141, esp. 137, 139, repro.

1989

  • Degas inédit: Actes du Colloque Degas, Musée d'Orsay 18-21 avril 1988. Essays by Gary Tinterow and Anne M.P. Norton (translated by Jeanne Bouniort), and Douglas Druick. Paris, 1989: fig. 1, 327, 336-337.

1991

  • Pingeot, Anne. Degas Sculptures. Paris, 1991: no. 73, repro.

  • Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 277.

  • Luchs, Alison. "The Degas Waxes, c. 1878 - c. 1911." In Art for the Nation: Gifts in Honor of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.: 1991: 182-183, repro.

  • Loyrette, Henri. Degas. Paris, 1991: 387, 391-394, 402, 612-614, 672, repro.

1995

  • Campbell, Sara. "A Catalogue of Degas' Bronzes." Apollo 142 (August 1995): 10-48, 46-47, fig. 71.

  • Callen, Anthea. The Spectacular Body: Science, Method, and Meaning in the Work of Degas. New Haven and London, 1995: 1, 16, 21-29, 69, pl. 1.

1996

  • Berson, Ruth, ed. The New Painting: Impressionism 1874-1886 -- Documentation. 2 vols. San Francisco, 1996: 1:282-283, 330-337, 339, 344-345, 348-362, 366-371.

  • Blühm, Andreas, et al. Essays by Wolfgang Drost and June Hargrove. In The Colour of Sculpture, 1840-1910. Exh. cat. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, 1996: 68-70, 105.

1998

  • Hargrove, June. "Degas's 'Little 14-year-old Dancer:' Madonna of the Third Republic?" Sculpture Journal 2 (1998): 97-105, fig. 1.

  • Hargrove, June. "Degas's 'Little Dancer' in the World of Pantomime." Apollo 147, no. 432 (February 1998): 15-21, fig. 1.

  • Druick, Douglas. "Framing The Little Dancer Aged Fourteen." In Richard Kendall, with contributions by Douglas W. Druick and Arthur Beale. Degas and the Little Dancer. Exh. cat. Josyln Art Museum, Omaha. New Haven and London, 1998: 76-96, repro.

  • Kahane, Martine, Delphine Pinasa, Wilfried Piollet, and Sara Campbell. “Enquête sur la Petite Danseuse de quatorze ans de Degas.” 48/14: La Revue du Musée d’Orsay, no. 7 (Autumn 1998): 48-71; abbreviated translation in Czestochowski and Pingeot 2002, 101-107.

1999

  • Schaller, Catherine. "Edgar Degas et la physiognomonie." Annales d'histoire de l'art et d'archéologie 21 (1999): 103-111, fig. 5.

2000

  • National Gallery of Art Special Issue. Connaissance des Arts. Paris, 2000: 62, repro. 63.

2001

  • Hargrove, June. "Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer: Madonna of the Third Republic?" In Horizons: Essays on art and Art Research. Edited by Hans-Jörg Heusser. Zurich, 2001: 147-156, fig. 1.

2002

  • Czestochowski, Joseph S., and Anne Pingeot. Degas--Sculptures. Catalogue Raisonné of the Bronzes. Memphis, 2002: 265, repro.

2005

  • Bretell, Richard R., and Anne-Birgitte Fonsmark. Gauguin and Impressionism. Exh. cat. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth; Ordrupgaard, Copenhagen. New Haven, 2005: 70, 108, 126, 128-129, 131-132, 136, 138, 140-142, 144, 146-147; figs. 79, 92, 102.

  • Cate, Phillip Dennis, ed. Breaking the Mold: Sculpture in Paris from Daumier to Rodin. Exh. cat. Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. New Brunswick, 2005: fig. 24.

2010

  • Lindsay, Suzanne Glover, Daphne S. Barbour, and Shelley G. Sturman. Edgar Degas Sculpture. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2010: no. 15, 116-137, color repro.

2013

  • Marks, Peter. "Peck to Bring Degas Piece to Life, and On Pointe." The Washington Post 136, no. 275 (6 September 2013): C-2, color repro.

2014

  • Kennicott, Philip. "As Disturbing as Enchanting." Washington Post 137, no. 318 (October 19, 2014): E13, color fig.

2016

  • Morton, Mary. "Paul Mellon: Private collector for the public." In Collecting for the Public: Works that Made a Difference. Essays for Peter Hecht. Edited by Bart Cornelis, Ger Luijten, Louis van Tilborgh, and Tim Zeedijk. Translated by Michael Hoyle. London, 2016: 32 fig. 11, 33, 37.

2017

  • Luchs, Alison. “The Little Dancer in Wax and Words: Reading a Sonnet by Edgar Degas.” In Degas, Daphne Barbour and Suzanne Quillen Lomax, eds. Facture. Conservation, Science, Art History 3 (2017): 158-175, figs. 1, 2 (detail), 3 (x-radiograph detail), 12 (detail), 15.

  • Kendall, Richard. "Degas and Difficulty." In Degas, Daphne Barbour and Suzanne Quillen Lomax, eds. Facture. Conservation, Science, Art History 2 (2017): 15-16, fig. 15.

  • Lomax, Suzanne Quillen, Barbara H. Berrie, and Michael Palmer. "Edgar Degas's Wax Sculptures: Characterization and Comparison with Contemporary Practice." In Degas, Daphne Barbour and Suzanne Quillen Lomax, eds. Facture. Conservation, Science, Art History 3 (2017): 50-77, esp. 50, 52, 55, 66, figs. 1 and 14 (photomicrograph of wax sample).

  • Barbour, Daphne, and Shelley Sturman. "Casting Degas's Sculpture into Bronze: A Closer Look." In Degas, Daphne Barbour and Suzanne Quillen Lomax, eds. Facture. Conservation, Science, Art History 3 (2017): 78-111, esp. 78, 80, 92-94, 98-102, figs. 12 and 19 (detail).

Inscriptions

on proper left back corner of base: Degas

Wikidata ID

Q63861727

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