Audio Stop 423

Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, by Edgar Degas, 1878 to 1881. The sculpture is made of colored wax, clay, human hair, and ribbon, with a cotton bodice, cotton silk tutu, and linen slippers. It’s about 3 feet 3 inches high, and stands on a square wooden base.

This description is just over 2 minutes long.

This wax statuette of a thin young white girl is dressed in a real, fabric ballet costume. The wax of the girl’s body is a bronze color. Its surface is shiny; in places it has an uneven texture showing where the wax has been molded by hand and with tools.  

The girl stands with her chin raised and her nose in the air. She has high cheekbones and a straight nose. Her eyes are half closed and her thin mouth is set in a line.

Her hands are clasped behind her back, which makes her shoulders pull down and her chest thrust forward. With her legs straight and her right foot forward of her left, her feet are nearly parallel, with the toes facing outwards, away from each other. Her hips and stomach are thrust forward.

Her straight hair is coated in the same bronze colored wax as her body. Bangs falls across her forehead and her long hair is pulled back into a thick braid that hangs down between her shoulder blades. The bottom of the braid is tied with a pale peach, silk ribbon. It’s possible to make out some strands of blond hair under the wax coating within the braid.

Her tight, sleeveless cotton bodice has buttons down the front. It’s made of a shiny, butter-yellow, cotton fabric. The fabric is darkened in places and has patches of wear and tear. The straps are slightly off the shoulders. Her skirt is a net tutu, gauzy in texture, bell-shaped and thigh length. It’s a smoke gray in color. The hemline is ragged.   

Her legs are long and skinny, with ballet slippers on her feet, also covered with the bronze-colored wax.

She stands on a square wooden base.