Description:
full figure of young dancer, right leg forward and partially formed arms raised installed on wood base with L shaped bar set into its side; woman; dance; nude

Label Text:
Degas produced only one sculpture that was exhibited during his lifetime, the iconic Little Dancer of Fourteen Years, dressed in an actual dance costume (see illustration).

After Degas’s death, approximately 150 sculptures and studies made from wax and other materials were found in his studio. Of these, seventy-four were cast in bronze in editions of twenty-two. Many are motion studies of dancers, such as this sculpture, and bathers in awkward positions. In this figure, the underlying armature is revealed in the dancer’s right arm and leg, where the sculpting material deteriorated and fell away. These improvisatory figures, with their activated surfaces, reveal Degas’s working process and his experiments with three-dimensional form.

Tags:
women; nudes; dance; music

Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=SC+1965.29

Research on objects in the collections, including provenance, is ongoing and may be incomplete. If you have additional information or would like to learn more about a particular object, please email fc-museums-web@fivecolleges.edu.