Edgar Degas

(Possibly) Halverson Collection, Glasgow, circa 1921
Arthur Tooth and Sons, London
Acquried from the above circa 1960s

Tokyo, Degas, no. 9, n.d.

John Rewald, Degas, Works in sculpture, A Complete Catalogue, New York, 1944, p. 24, no. XLI, illustration of another cast p. 96
P. Boral, Les oeuvres sculptés inédites de Degas, Geneva, 1947, pl. 17, illustration of another cast
John Rewald and Leonard von Matt, L'oeuvre sculpté de Degas, Zurich, 1957, p. 152, no. XLI, illustration of another cast, fig. 17
Franco Russoli, L'opera completa di Degas, Milan, 1970, p. 140, no. S3, illustration of another cast
John Rewald, Degas's Complete Sculpture: Catalogue Raisonné, San Francisco, 1990, pp. 120-21, no. XLI, illustration of original wax model and another cast
Anne Pingeot, Degas Sculptures, Paris, 1991, p. 154, no. 3, illustration of original wax model
Sara Campbell, "A Catalogue of Degas' Bronzes", Apollo, vol. CXLII (no. 402), 1995, no. 2, illustration of another cast, p. 12
Joseph S. Czestochowski and Anne Pingeot, Degas Sculptures, Catalogue raisonné of the Bronzes, Memphis, 2002, pp. 124-25, no. 2, illustration of another cast

Very good condition. Minor surface dirt. Some minor patina rubbing to extremities of the base.
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Degas' dancers are perhaps the most celebrated figures of his oeuvre. Throughout his career he constantly experimented with rendering the dancers in various poses, as he was fascinated with the seemingly boundless flexibility of their bodies. By and large, the medium of sculpture offered him the most possibilities for capturing the grace and beauty of these figures. In the present work, the artist has rendered the dancer posing with her left leg extended backward, almost parallel to the ground, and her right arm extended forwards, counterbalancing her weight. This position, known as an arabesque, is one of the most animated poses of the ballet, and was commonly depicted in Degas' paintings, drawings and pastels. By employing a three-dimensional medium here, the artist is more fully able to convey the expressive potential of the figure's body.

Writing about this work in the recent exhibition catalogue Degas and the Dance, Jill DeVonyar and Richard Kendall discuss the signficance of this pose in 19th century classical dance and the three dimensional complexity that it offered the sculptor: ''In Degas' Arabesque Over Right Leg, we encounter an almost flat back [...], while the bent knee represents a further departure from the current practice of keeping the extended leg completely straight. [...] In this context, we should note that Degas' sensitively modeled, lyrical figure is represented in the nude, allowing him to give full articulation to the currently preferred pose, and incidentally, to reveal the true shape of his uncorseted model" (Jill DeVonyar and Richard Kendall, Degas and the Dance (exhibition catalogue), The Detroit Institute of Arts; The Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2002-03, p. 153).

Fig. 1 Photograph of the wax version of Arabesque over the right leg, left arm in line with armature