Study in the Nude of Little Dancer Aged Fourteen (Nude Little Dancer)

Technical Notes

Radiography (fig. 1) reveals that the figure is made from a homogeneous modeling material, identified using GC as beeswax,[1] over a plaster core, and supported on plaster and wooden bases. The arms, also beeswax, were modeled separately over twisted wire, identified using XRF as galvanized iron, and attached to the shoulders.[2] Like Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, Study in the Nude of Little Dancer Aged Fourteen is distinguished in scale and facture from all other sculpture by Degas in the remnant corpus. Furthermore, the complexity of manufacture evident in this work argues that Degas was assisted by a mold-maker as he fabricated this statuette.

Degas began his sculpture by modeling in clay or wax. From this original version, now lost, a mold in plaster was probably taken.[3] If a primary plaster sculpture was cast and a gelatin mold created from it in order to reproduce multiple versions of the same sculpture, no evidence exists today. However, the fact that lifetime plasters assembled from piece molds exist proves that Degas did use mold-makers.[4] Beyond the obvious desire to capture his work in a more durable medium, Degas’s reasons for molding this work are speculative.

It is tempting to suggest that Degas created this sculpture with a particular purpose in mind.[5] One possibility is that it was made for Louisine Havemeyer, who tried unsuccessfully to purchase Little Dancer Aged Fourteen. In 1903 Mary Cassatt wrote to Paul Durand-Ruel: “I have just received a letter from Mrs. Havemeyer about the statue [Little Dancer]. She will have nothing but the original, and she tells me that Degas, on the pretext that the wax has blackened, wants to do it all over in bronze or plaster with wax on the surface.”[6] However, bismuth identified in the wax matrix, described later in the Technical Notes, links this sculpture chronologically with The Schoolgirl, dating it to the late 1870s, as Lindsay proposes.

Ultimately, for reasons that remain unknown, Degas partially cast this sculpture. To facilitate taking a mold, the sculpture was divided into three sections prior to molding in plaster (figs. 2a, 2b).[7] Placement of the armatures as three campaigns within the extant sculpture, revealed by radiography, supports this premise. Once the plaster mold sections were completed, they were opened longitudinally, forming six separate pieces (fig. 2c).[8] Raised seam lines, consistent with these longitudinal sections, run continuously from the head of the extant sculpture to the foot on each side, but exclude the arms.[9] Curiously, the arms of this sculpture were not molded. It is possible that they formed part of the original mold and that Degas, dissatisfied, modified the arms later in the process. Indeed, the absence of arms made the figure more self-contained and less cumbersome to mold.

Beeswax was then applied inside the recessed sections of the mold, either by painting molten wax or by pressing sheet wax (see fig. 2c). Successive applications of wax, evident from the many striations in the radiograph (see fig. 1), were applied until a desired thickness was achieved. Analysis using GC and SEM-EDS identified the wax medium as beeswax, pigmented with red iron oxide, brown earth, vermilion, lead white, bismuth white, and charcoal black extended using starch, quartz, calcium carbonate, and gypsum.[10] The surface of the wax still appears red today due to its iron oxide and vermilion pigments, although scattered areas have discolored.[11] The presence of bismuth white, found in only one other sculpture analyzed, implies that Degas used a wax different from that found on other works, perhaps one provided by a mold-maker.[12]

Once the wax had been applied within the mold pieces, paired sections were assembled and bound. Beginning at the base and working up, Degas and an assistant placed pipes, used as metal armatures of the legs, into holes previously cut into a working base (fig. 2d). The right leg has two pipes, the shorter one ending just above the knee and the longer one extending to the lower back; the left leg contains one that extends only to the buttocks. Prior to inserting, the pipes were wrapped with a thin wire that enhanced adhesion of the metal support to the plaster core later poured within the hollow of the mold.

As noted, plaster, identified using XRd as plaster of Paris (calcium sulfate dihydrate or gypsum) with carbon black, iron oxide, and calcium carbonate, was poured in three stages.[13] Given the choreography required to insert the wooden armatures into a wet plaster core, it seems likely that the first section to receive its core would have been the head. Mold sections, supported on the exterior, possibly with a mother mold, were turned upside down in order to pour plaster within the hollow. A wooden plank (with a jagged edge) was inserted into the core, providing sup-port to the neck and ultimately bridging the seam between neck and body (fig. 2e).

Once the plaster inside the head had dried, the molded sections of the torso were inverted, placed onto those of the head, and bound, encasing the long plank protruding from the dry core. Again plaster was poured into the hollow (fig. 2f), and two wooden slats were inserted into the wet core of the torso flanking the plank already positioned in the head. During the process, wet plaster seeped up into the neck, binding the core of the head, neck, and torso together. A distinct line between the plaster poured while the head was upside down and the plaster that seeped into the neck is evident in the radiograph (see fig. 1).[14] Lastly the molded sections for the legs, already placed around the armatures and bound, were filled with plaster (fig. 2g). At the same time, the upper two sections, now filled with dry plaster holding wooden armatures, were turned upright and placed on top (fig. 2h). A tiny vertical seam indicative of a plaster-to-plaster join is visible in the radiograph in the area along the plaster core, just above the navel.

After the plaster had set and the molds were disassembled, an armless sculpture internally supported by a plaster core and having a fairly smooth surface was revealed (fig. 2i). (Flashing and seam lines on the exterior could have been removed at this stage.) Surface details were enhanced after molding, as seen in the toolmarks apparent around the ears and mouth. What remained to be done was to fabricate the arms.

As observed in the radiograph, the core extends throughout the figure but excludes the arms (fig. 3). Modeled freehand over a twisted iron wire rather than cast, the arms were also formed from red beeswax. Analysis using GC and SEM-EDS revealed that the beeswax of the arms is consistent with that of the body, containing iron oxide, brown earth, vermilion, lead white, charcoal black, bismuth white, and extended with starch, quartz, calcium carbonate, and gypsum.[15]

To attach the arms to the figure, superficial wax at the truncation was scraped, exposing the plaster core of each upper arm. Wet plaster was then applied to the core, and a nail was embedded so that only the tip was exposed. The arms, from the bicep down, were next attached simply by pushing the arms onto the nail tip and filling the join just below the shoulder with wax. It is curious to note that the twisted wire within the arms was not entwined with the nail, though entwining would have provided a more secure connection to the body.[16]

Lastly, and again a unique feature to this sculpture, was a plaster base that was created specifically for the sculpture after it was completed.[17] The same plaster base as well as the wooden base on which it rests were recorded in the inventory photograph (fig. 4). Analysis using XRD of a sample from the base identified it as plaster of Paris containing traces of iron, zinc, and strontium as impurities.[18]

Nailed and stacked wooden boards, recorded in edges of the cast base, provided exterior walls into which plaster for the base could be poured. Impressions of boards nailed together to form the larger base are also cast into the sides of the plaster base. To create the base, plaster was poured into an open rectangular form. Once enough plaster to accommodate the armatures protruding from the feet had been poured into the form, the sculpture was placed on top. While the plaster was still wet, the right foot was adjusted, in the process leaving its footprint in the plaster.[19] Wet plaster was spread around the feet of the figure using broad-toothed tools as evident on the surface.

Though Degas’s purpose in making this figure cannot be determined from technical evidence, what can be emphasized is that he chose a labor-intensive means to achieve an end for this particular work and that he used a cast of a now-lost figure and completed the piece with a base. In that regard, Study in the Nude is a sculpture in its own right.

Provenance

The artist, Paris; his five heirs; (Adrien Aurélien Hébrard, Paris); his widow, Mme Adrien Aurélien Hébrard, and/or his daughter, Nelly Hébrard, Paris; consigned 1955, with most of the other lifetime works, to (M. Knoedler and Company, Inc., New York); sold May 25, 1956, to Paul Mellon, Upperville, Virginia.

Exhibited

Edgar Degas, 1834 – 1917: Original Wax Sculptures, M. Knoedler and Company, Inc., New York, 1955, cat. 19 (exh. cat. Knoedler 1955). Sculpture by Degas, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, 1956 (no exh. cat.). An Enduring Legacy: Masterpieces from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, National Gallery of Art, 1999 – 2000 (no exh. cat.).