Image
Edgar Degas
Now On View
Description
Maker
- A.A. Hebrard, foundry or carver
- Edgar Degas, 1834-1917, French
Title
Year
Medium
Materials/Techniques
-
Materials
Dimensions
-
42.2 x 60.6 x 27 cm (16 5/8 x 23 7/8 x 10 5/8 inches)
Signature / Inscription / Marks
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Signed, behind right foot:Degas; stamped, right base, beneath extended left foot:15/i/CIRE / PERDUE / A. A. HEBRARD
Type
Credit
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Gift of Stephen O. Metcalf, George Pierce Metcalf and Houghton P. Metcalf
Object Number
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23.315
About
Transitional poses such as this one were constant themes of Edgar Degas’s numerous sculptural studies made in wax, wire, and plastilene. Collected from his studio following his death, these models became the sources of small editions cast in bronze, including this one of a dancer posed in a grand arabesque. In the classic ballet position, the dancer bends forward while standing on one straight leg, with the opposite arm extended forward and the other arm and leg extended backward. In the 1890s the British artist Walter Sickert visited Degas in his studio and was shown the wax model for this figure. He was struck by Degas’s interest in movement, as he “turned the statuette slowly to show me the successive silhouettes thrown on a white sheet by the light of a candle.”
Signed, behind right foot:Degas; stamped, right base, beneath extended left foot:15/i/CIRE / PERDUE / A. A. HEBRARD