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This sculpture is of a young girl in a ballet costume standing before us with her hands clasped behind her lower back, her head tipped back, and her chin thrust forward. The skin of her face, arms, chest, and legs are covered in bronze-brown wax, and her body faces us in this photograph. The sleeveless, putty-gray bodice of her costume fits tightly above a layered, fabric, pale, tea-brown tutu, and she wears ballet shoes. Her hair is pulled back but bangs sweep across her forehead, brushing her nearly closed, heavy eyelids. Her lips are slightly parted, and light catches the broad planes of her cheekbones. Her shoulders are drawn back by her pose, holding her hands behind her with arms straight, and her hips jut slightly forward. She stands with her right foot extended in front of her, with both feet turned out, parallel to each other. She stands on a square, wood platform.

Edgar Degas

Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, plaster cast possibly 1920/1921, after original wax modelled 1878-1881

West Building, Ground Floor — Gallery G3

Medium

painted plaster, fabric, metal armature, on plaster base

Dimensions

overall (without base): 99.4 x 35 x 35.8 cm (39 1/8 x 13 3/4 x 14 1/8 in.)
base: 5.9 x 49.4 x 50.4 cm (2 5/16 x 19 7/16 x 19 13/16 in.)

Credit Line

Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

Accession Number

1985.64.62

Artists / Makers

Edgar Degas (sculptor) French, 1834 - 1917

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Provenance

(A.-A. Hébrard, Paris);[1] sold to (M. Knoedler & Company, New York); given or sold 1956 to John Rewald [1912-1994], New York;[2] sold April 1968 to Paul Mellon [1907-1999], Upperville, Virginia; gift 1985 to NGA.

[1] This plaster is one of two produced at the Hébrard foundry in connection with the casting of the original wax sculpture, also in the NGA collection (1999.80.28).

[2] Rewald merely states in his bill of sale to Mr. Mellon that he "obtained" the plaster from Knoedler; see NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Hébrard, Adrien-Aurélien
Knoedler & Company, M.
Mellon, Paul
Rewald, John

Exhibition History

1999: An Enduring Legacy: Masterpieces from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1999-2000, as Dressed Ballet Dancer (Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans), no cat.

Bibliography

1976: Millard, Charles W. The Sculpture of Edgar Degas. Princeton, 1976: 34 n. 41.

1979: Failing, Patricia. "The Degas bronzes Degas never knew." Art News (April 1979): 38+.

1990: Rewald, John. Degas's Complete Sculpture: Catalogue Raisonné. San Francisco, 1990: 79, repro.

1991: Gingold, Diane J., and Elizabeth A.C. Weil. The Corporate Patron. New York, 1991: 109, color repro.

1991: Pingeot, Anne. Degas Sculptures. Paris, 1991: no. 73.

1994: Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1994: 67, repro.

1995: Barbour, Daphne. "Degas's 'Little Dancer': Not Just a Study in the Nude." Art Journal 54 (Summer 1995): 28+, repro.

1995: Campbell, Sara. "A Catalogue of Degas' Bronzes." Apollo 142 (August 1995): 10-48, 46-47.

1997: Henderson, Anne. "Portraits & Personalities." Washington Parent (November 1997): 14, repro.

1998: Beale, Arthur. "Little Dancer Aged Fourteen: The Search for the Lost Modèle." In Richard Kendall, with contributions by Douglas W. Druick and Arthur Beale. Degas and the Little Dancer. Exh. cat. Josyln Art Museum, Omaha. New Haven and London, 1998: 104-108, figs. 77, 78, 80 (radiograph), 82, 85.

1998: Hargrove, June. "Degas's 'Little 14-year-old Dancer:' Madonna of the Third Republic?" Sculpture Journal 2 (1998): 97-105, repro.

1998: Hargrove, June. "Degas's 'Little Dancer' in the World of Pantomime." Apollo 147, no. 432 (February 1998): 15-21, repro.

2002: Czestochowski, Joseph S., and Anne Pingeot. Degas--Sculptures. Catalogue Raisonné of the Bronzes. Memphis, 2002: 267.

2009: Campbell, Sara, et al. Degas in the Norton Simon Museum: Nineteenth-Century Art. New Haven, 2009: 50-67.

2010: Lindsay, Suzanne Glover, Daphne S. Barbour, and Shelley G. Sturman. Edgar Degas Sculpture. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2010: no. 16, 138-143, color repro.

2017: Dickerson III, C.D. "The Sculpture Collection: Shaping a Vision, Expanding a Legacy." National Gallery of Art Bulletin 56 (Spring 2017): 10, repro.