Dancer Adjusting the Shoulder Strap of Her Bodice
original wax 1880s/1890s, cast 1920/1949
Sculptor, French, 1834 - 1917
Artwork overview
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Medium
copper alloy
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall with base: 35.2 x 10.1 x 7.8 cm (13 7/8 x 4 x 3 1/16 in.)
height (of figure): 34.8 cm (13 11/16 in.) -
Accession
1985.64.64
West Building Ground Floor, Gallery G4
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
(Adrien-Aurélien Hébrard [1865-1937], Paris). Possibly sold or consigned to (Max Kaganovitch, Paris), by 1949; sold 4 September 1951 through (Frankart S.A., Switzerland) to (Alex Reid & Lefèvre, London).[1] Possibly sold to (Curt Valentin, New York);[2] sold 1955 to (M. Knoedler & Co., New York); sold 1956 to (Paul Rosenberg & Co., New York).[3] sold, apparently after 1958,[4] to Dr. Hugo Tesoriere; (sale, Sotheby's, London, 24-25 November 1964, 1st day, no. 58); purchased by (Hector Brame, Paris) for Paul Mellon [1907-1999], Upperville, Virginia;[5] gift 1985 to NGA.
[1] Sara Campbell, "A Catalogue of Degas' Bronzes," Apollo (August 1995): 42, cat. 64; Joseph S. Czestochowski and Anne Pingeot, Degas Sculptures. Catalogue Raisonné of the Bronzes, Memphis, 2002: 21, 120, 247. Kaganovitch allegedly bought and showed a nearly full set of "O" casts in his Paris gallery's Degas exhibition of 1949 before selling the set to Reid and Lefevre and then organizing with them an exhibition at the Kunstmuseum in Bern in 1951-1952. A bronze of this subject indeed appears in general installation photographs of the 1949 Paris exhibition (Dossier Kaganovitch, Documentation du Musée d'Orsay, Paris), although Kaganovitch reportedly also owned the "F" cast as well, albeit later, in 1952. For the discussion of the sale to Reid and Lefevre Gallery before the Bern exhibition, see "Introduction to the Collection," in Czestochowski and Pingeot 2002.
[2] Campbell 1995: 42, cat. 64. Czestochowski and Pingeot 2002: 247, proposes that the D cast is involved instead.
[3] Campbell 1995: 42; Czestochowski and Pingeot 2002: 247.
[4] A cast belonging to Paul Rosenberg was exhibited at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1958.
[5] Confirmation by the late Philippe Brame, personal communication to Anne Halpern, 13 January 2003; see also Mellon collection records in NGA curatorial files.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1949
Probably [Degas exhibition], Galerie Max Kaganovitch, Paris, 1949.
1951
Probably [Degas exhibition], Kunstmuseum, Bern, 1951, no. 204.
1958
Probably An Exhibition of Works by Edgar Hilaire Germain Degas 1834-1917, Los Angeles County Museum, 1958, no. 103, repro.
2005
Breaking the Mold: Sculpture in Paris from Daumier to Rodin, The Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, 2005-2006, unnumbered catalogue, fig. 263.
Bibliography
1990
Rewald, John. Degas's Complete Sculpture: Catalogue Raisonné. San Francisco, 1990: no. XXV, repro.
1991
Pingeot, Anne. Degas Sculptures. Paris, 1991: no. 28.
1994
Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1994: 66, repro.
1995
Campbell, Sara. "A Catalogue of Degas' Bronzes." Apollo 142 (August 1995): 42, no. 64.
2002
Czestochowski, Joseph S., and Anne Pingeot. Degas--Sculptures. Catalogue Raisonné of the Bronzes. Memphis, 2002: 247.
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. 35, 220-221, color repro.
2017
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. 85-86, figs. 6, 7.
Inscriptions
on front proper right corner of self-base: Degas [stamped replica of artist's signature]; in rear proper left corner of self-base: CIRE/PERDUE/A.A. HEBRARD; stamped adjacent to foundry mark: 64/Q
Markings
FM: A.A. Hebrard
Wikidata ID
Q63860803