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The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer, 19th–20th century (executed ca. 1880; cast in 1922)
By Edgar Degas (1834–1917), Sculptor; Cast by A. A. Hébrard, Founder
Made in Paris, France
Bronze, partially tinted, with cotton skirt and satin hair-ribbon; wood base; H. (w/out base) 39 in. (99.1 cm)
H.O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H.O. Havemeyer, 1929 (29.100.370)

Degas exhibited the original version of this sculpture at the sixth Impressionist exhibition, in 1881. The wax figure, tinted to simulate flesh, was clothed in a real bodice, tutu, and ballet slippers and topped by a horsehair wig tied with a silk ribbon. The care with which Degas observed his model, a ballet student in the Paris Opéra named Marie van Goethem, is reflected in the extraordinary number of surviving sketches in charcoal and pastel as well as in the preparatory sculptural study of the figure in the nude.

Edgar Degas (1834-1917) was an outspoken proponent of a new sensibility. He was a part of the Impressionist movement an considered controversial Degas's subject matter was often ballet.

Degas amassed a collection of art so vast and of such substance that he considered establishing his own private museum to house it. The Musée Degas was never realized; instead, his collection was auctioned off in 1918.

Learn more about Edgar Degas, his times, his work, and his collection through this on-line exploration created in conjunction with the international loan exhibition "The Private Collection of Edgar Degas" and the Teacher Workshop "Postures and Poses: The Art of Edgar Degas."

Edgar Degas lived to 83.  His style evolved in his over 60 year career.Hilaire Germain Edgar de Gas 'Degas' was born in Paris, the eldest of three boys and two girls born to a prosperous banker from a Neapolitan family and his Créole wife from New Orleans. He spent some time in New Orleans where he produced several well known paintings.

He was named after his grandfathers - Hilaire Degas, a banker from Naples, and Germain Musson, a New Orleans merchant - two men of powerful personalities who were to have much influence on him as a child.

He was educated at the lycée Louis-le-Grand where he met his long-time friends Henri Rouart, Paul Valpinçon and Ludovic

He enrolled at the Faculty of Law , although he preferred to spend his time in the print room of the Louvre where he had already made some copies from engravings, and also visiting the painting studios of Félix Barrias and Louis Lamothe.

He visited Rome where he met Gustave Moreau, already an influential figure eight years his elder. They became close friends and visited Florence together between June and August 1858.

In Paris in 1859, he set up studio in the rue Laval, where he was born.

Degas was a great opera enthusiast and this work was inspired by Rossini's Semiramide which was being staged at the time in Paris - although it displays none of the rappport with the spectacle which was to characterise his later work. In such works he attempted to take a fresh look at historical painting which he considered to have been suffocated and stereotyped by the Salon favourites such as Bouguereau, Cabanel and Gérôme. This ambition distanced him from most of his contemporaries who were more modernist and aligned him with Puvis de Chavannes and Moreau who were considered by many to be eccentric and reactionary. Semiramis was a queen of ancient Syria celebrated for both her beauty and cruelty. Moreau was particularly fascinated by stories of femmes fatales and he might well have encouraged Degas in the choice of this theme. The background of the scene certainly has the style of Moreau whilst the panoramic concept evokes the great murals of Puvis de Chavannes. Another now famous painting of this period is his Petites Filles Spartiales Provoquant des Garçons (Young Spartan Girls Challenging Some Boys). If this work is compared with, say Gérôme's Combat de Coqs, exhibited at the Salon of 1847, the originality of Degas' concept of the historical genre scene is quite evident - there are none of the archeological and exotic accessories, no eroticism in the nudes - indeed there is little distinction between the boys and the girls, the latter possessing lean angular bodies and features.

From 1865 to1870 Degas exhibited each year at the Paris Salon.  In 1872 he exhibited with the Society of French Artists at an exhibition in London organised by the dealer Durand-Ruel, but then in October set off for a five month stay with his brothers in New Orleans.

It was during the 1870's that Degas acquired his enduring reputation as a "painter of dancers". The reasons for his interest in dance were numerous and diverse but certainly stem from his life-long enthusiasm for music and the opera. Indeed amongst his circle of friends could be counted the composers Emmanuel Chabrier and Ernest Reyer. The interior of the opera house also had many visual attractions - the possibility of unusual views onto the stage from balconies or the orchestral pit, contrasts between light and darkness, illusion and reality, beauty and banality ... Degas seemed to be as interested in the effects of artificial light as others among the Impressionist group were interested in the effects of natural light.

The desire to experiment with new techniques is also found in Degas' etchings and lithographs which number over 60. Indeed at the end of the 1870's and into the 80's he collaborated with Camille Pissarro and Mary Cassatt on various experiments in the realm of graphic design, particularly in the production of monotypes using new and diverse techniques. Georges Rivière, an art critic and friend of Renoir said of his work: "If Degas had been content only with engraving his plates, he would have left us the most beautiful etchings in the 19th century".

In the 1890's Degas continued to work with his favourite themes of dancers, bathers and jockeys. But besides these he also became interested again in the countryside.

His first personal exhibition, which was held at the Durand-Ruel gallery in 1892, consisted of an extraordinary series of semi-abstract monotypes with enhanced colours representing mysterious landscapes. As we began going blind he continued to paint. "It's one thing to copy what one sees, but it's much better to draw what can only be seen in one's memory. It's a transformation during which the imagination collaborates with the memory ... there your recollections and fantasies are freed from the tyranny exerted by nature."

Renoir considered Degas, even more than Rodin, the greatest sculptor of his time. Degas continued to struggle against his blindness and worked up to about 1912.  He enjoyed international success and high prices commanded for his works. He died in 1917 during the Firwt World War.

He was buried in the cemetery of Montmartre.

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