Edgar Degas

Galerie Max Kaganovitch, Paris (1949)
The Lefevre Gallery (Alex. Reid & Lefevre), London (acquired from the above in September 1951)
Sam Salz, New York
Private Collection, New York (acquired circa 1970)
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Bern, Kunstmuseum, Degas, 1951, no. 198
London, Lefevre Gallery (Alex. Reid & Lefevre), Edgar Degas, 1970, no. 27

Paul Gsell, "Edgar Degas, Statuaire," La Renaissance de l'art français et des industries de luxe, Paris, December 1918, illustration of another cast p. 376
Paul-André Lemoisne, "Les Statuettes de Degas," Art et Décoration, Paris, September-October 1919, illustration of the wax model p. 112
Catalogue Hébrard, Paris, 1921, no. 37, illustration of another cast
Guillaume Janneau, "Les Sculptures de Degas," Renaissance de l'art français et des industries de luxe, Paris, July 1921, illustration of another cast p. 352
Germain Bazin, "Degas Sculpteur," L'Amour de l'Art, Paris, July 1931, illustration of another cast p. 294
John Rewald, Degas: Works in Sculpture, A Complete Catalogue, New York, 1944, no. XIX, illustration of another cast pp. 57-61
Lillian Browse, Degas Dancers, Boston, 1949, illustration of another cast pl. 95
Pierre Borel, Les Sculptures inédites de Degas. Choix de cires originales, Geneva, 1949, illustration of the wax model (titled Étude de nu)
John Rewald, Degas Sculpture, New York, 1957, no. XIX, illustration of another cast pl. 144
Charles W. Millard, The Sculpture of Edgar Degas, Princeton, 1976, illustration of the wax model pls. 23 and 24
Jacqueline and Maurice Guillaud, (eds.), Degas, Form and Space, Paris and New York, 1984, no. 154, illustration of another cast p. 178
Denys Sutton, Edgar Degas, Life and Work, New York, 1986, no. 170, illustration of another cast p. 186
Fiorella Minervino & Sixtine de Naurois, Tout l'oeuvre peint de Degas, Paris, 1988, no. S37, illustration of another cast p. 142
Anne Roquebert, Degas, Paris, 1988, fig. 61, illustration of another cast
Richard Thomson, Degas, les nus, Paris, 1988, fig. 112, illustration of the wax model p. 123
Degas (exhibition catalogue), Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa & The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1988-89, illustrations of another cast pp. 349 and 350
John Rewald, Degas' Complete Sculpture: A Catalogue Raisonné, San Francisco, 1990, no. XIX, illustration of another cast p. 76
Anne Pingeot and Frank Hovart, Degas, sculptures, Paris, 1991, no. 37, illustrations of another cast pp. 36, 37 and 171
Sara Campbell, "Degas: The Sculptures, A Catalogue Raisonné," Apollo, London, August 1995, no. 56, illustration of another cast p. 38
Degas and the Little Dancer (exhibition catalogue), Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha; Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown & The Baltimore Museum of Art, 1998-99, illustration of another cast pl. 39
Joseph S. Czestochowski and Anne Pingeot, ed., Degas Sculptures, Catalogue raisonné of the bronzes, Iowa City, 2002, no. 56, illustration of another cast p. 230

Rich red-brown patina. This work is in very good condition. Colors: The colors in the catalogue are fairly accurate.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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Conceived in 1878-79, this sculpture depicts the model who posed for Degas' most celebrated sculpture, Petite danseuse de quatorze ans (fig. 1). The model was Marie van Goethem, who reached her fourteenth birthday on February 17, 1878. She was the daughter of a Belgium laundress and tailor living in Paris, and together with her two sisters she studied ballet at the Opéra, where she subsequently made her debut as a ballerina in 1888. It was there that Degas discovered her, and asked that she pose for this important sculpture.

 

The significance of the Petite Danseuse project for Degas is underscored by numerous associated drawings whose exact sequence and relationship to the sculptures remain unclear. Nude studies include the one sold in Degas' Vente III, no. 369, with her arms in front of her chest, and those from Vente III, no. 386, and Vente IV, no. 287, in which the pose is close to that used in this sculpture (fig. 2). Out of these drawings emerged the wax study for this work (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.), which was approximately three-quarters the size of the clothed version.

 

The clothed wax version was the only sculpture which Degas ever exhibited. It was originally intended for the Fifth Impressionist Exhibition in 1880 and was included in the catalogue as no. 34, but only an empty vitrine was shown. When it was finally unveiled in the Sixth Impressionist Exhibition in 1881 (no. 12), it shocked many spectators because of its 'disturbing and unique naturalism' (Jules Claretie, La Vie à Paris, Paris, 1881). Petite danseuse de quatorze ans is now recognized as Degas' supreme sculptural achievement.

 

The sculptural challenge of the adolescent female body clearly absorbed Degas. Charles W. Millard writes: "In choosing a fourteen year old model, Degas was attacking... what had... repeatedly been singled out as a difficult sculptural problem. As early as 1822 Thiers had suggested that adolescent forms, being inherently angular and non sculptural, were difficult to render in three dimensions. A decade later Gustave Planche was considerably more specific. 'In the transition from childhood to adolescence the female body rarely shows harmonious lines... the woman who will be beautiful at sixteen is often ungraceful at fourteen. To translate a woman of fourteen into marble one must have consummate skill, and above all great interpretative boldness...'" (C. Millard, op. cit., p. 98).

 

It had been assumed that the nude study as it is known today preceded the final version, but as recent studies of the sculpture have indicated, this is not necessarily the case. Referring to the "too-common error of assuming that artists make their work in strict, production-line sequences of painting or sculptures, completing one before moving on to the next," Richard Kendall has argued that a close analysis of the original wax sculpture from which all the bronzes ultimately derive, indicates that the nude study may in fact post-date the Little Dancer itself. "Important though this undoubtedly is in shedding light on the artist's ingenuity and longer-term ambitions, it does not distract from the overwhelming probability that an original wax form of the Nude Study existed in the late 1870s and that it was intimately involved in the sculptural evolution of that moment" (R. Kendall, Degas and the Little Dancer, New Haven and London, 1998, p. 35).

 

The original agreement between the founder Hébrard and Degas' heirs specified that each sculpture should be cast in an edition of 20, lettered "A" to "T", for public sale plus two casts reserved for the Degas heirs and for Hébrard marked "HER.D" and "HER" respectively. In certain cases there are inconsistencies in the marking of the bronzes, however, and in addition to the lettered casts marked "A" to "T" Sara Campbell lists a cast marked "56/HER", another marked "HER" in the Fridart Foundation, Amsterdam, as well as an unmarked cast and another marked "AP" issued outside the provisions of the original contract.