The 14 Year Old Dancer

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The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer Originating in Paris France, The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer, or Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans, is one of the most recognizable sculptures today. It was created by Edgar Degas (1834-1917) and cast by A. A. Hébrard. The original model was formed in 1880 and was later cast in 1922 (1). His heirs wanted to preserve his wax sculptures in bronze so now there are twenty-two casts in existence (2). The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer is a bronze statue with a skirt and hair ribbon, as well as a wood base. Her shoes and bodice are bronze and lightly tinted, while her skirt is a real, cotton material. The dimensions overall are: H. 38 1/2 x W. 17 1/4 x D. 14 3/8 in. ). The fluffiness of the skirt generally skews the measurements though (2). The sculpture stands in ballet's fourth position and thrusts her chest and chin forward in a manner at odds with the elegance usually associated with ballet (3). The sculpture was modeled after a ballet student named Marie Van Goethem. Van Goethem was born on June 7th, 1865 and began as a student at the École de Dance in Paris, but by 1880 she had bee studying as a dancer at the Opéra in Paris (1). Degas was greatly interested in dance, so he spent hours attending rehearsals and studying the dancers. He drew Maria, both clothed and nude, from various angels. Numerous charcoal and pastel drawings have been found showing Degas’s meticulous care in preparing for the actual sculpture. One of Degas’s only publicly exhibited sculptures at the time, it was shown at the sixth Impressionist exhibition in 1881 and was encased in a glass box. Then it was a wax figure, replicating the texture and appearance of flesh. It also wore a real bodice, tutu, ballet shoes and had a wig made of horsehair, which was topped with a silk ribbon (2).

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