“The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer” by Edgar Degas is a sculpture begun about 1880 by Edgar Degas of a young student at the Paris Opera Ballet dance school.
The statue is one-third life-size and was initially sculpted in wax. The dancer is dressed in a bodice, tutu and ballet slippers.
This sculpture is one of 28 bronze repetitions that appear in museums around the world, which were cast after Degas’ death. The tutus worn by the bronzes vary from museum to museum.
The arms are taut, and the legs and feet are placed in a ballet position. There is tension in the pose, an image of a young adolescent ballerina being put through her paces.
The sculpture depicts one of Degas’s favorite themes, dancers captured in various poses. Ballet dancers were one of Degas’ favorite subjects. Degas told a Parisian art dealer:
“People call me the painter of dancing girls, it has never occurred to them that my chief interest in dancers lies in rendering movement and painting pretty clothes.”
These dancers were known as “petits rats de l’opéra,” literally “opera rats,” because of their scurrying around the opera stage in tiny, fast-moving steps.
Young, pretty, and poor, the ballet students were potential targets of wealthy patrons; thus, the term also had negative connotations.
In this world of wealth and poverty, Degas’s studio was once visited by the police morals unit, wanting to know why so many little girls were coming and going. The exact relationship between the model and Edgar Degas is a matter of debate.
At the ballet, Degas captured a world that excited his taste for classical beauty and his eye for modern realism. He became a regular visitor to the Paris Opéra and its Ballet.
He invented new techniques for drawing and painting the world of pink and white, so full of hard work, ritual and tradition.
At the sixth Impressionist exhibition of 1881, Edgar Degas showed the original of this sculpture, which was the only sculpture that he ever exhibited in public.
The statue was not well received by the critics who protested that she was ugly. The mixed media of the figurine, basically a wax statuette dressed in real clothes, was very innovative, and the work’s realism was revolutionary.
After Degas’s death, his heirs authorized that copies be cast in bronze of his wax sculptures. Paul-Albert Bartholomé, a sculptor and Degas’s friend, prepared the figures for casting, a process executed by a Paris foundry.
The quality of the bronzes was controlled, and their edition was limited.
Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas (1834–1917) was prolific in paintings, sculptures, prints, and drawings. He was fond of the subject of dance, and more than half of his works depict dancers.
He is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism, although Degas rejected the term, preferring to be called a Realist.
He was masterly in depicting movement, as can be seen in his many masterpieces of dancers, racecourse subjects, and female nudes.
Upon Degas’s death, more than 150 figurative sculptures were found in his studio. Most were made of wax, clay, and plasticine.
Many had deteriorated. Except for the wax “Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer,” none of the other sculptures had been publicly exhibited during the Degas’s lifetime.
The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer
- Title: The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer
- French: La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans
- Artist: Edgar Degas
- Founder: Cast by A. A. Hébrard (Paris)
- Dates: 1880 (conceived) 1922 (cast), 2018 (tutu)
- Materials: Partially tinted bronze, cotton tarlatan, silk satin, and wood
- Dimensions: H. 38 1/2 x W. 17 1/4 x D. 14 3/8 in. (97.8 x 43.8 x 36.5 cm)
- Museum: Metropolitan Museum of Art – MET
Edgar Degas
- Name: Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas
- Born: 1834 – Paris, France
- Died: 1917 (aged 83) – Paris, France
- Nationality: French
- Movement: Impressionism
- Notable works:
- Three Dancers at a Dance Class
- The Bath: Woman Sponging Her Back
- After the Bath, Woman Drying Herself
- Woman Drying Herself
- After the Bath, Woman Drying Her Back
- After the Bath, Woman Drying Her Back (Getty Museum)
- The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer (MET)
- Orchestra Musicians
- Mary Cassatt
Edgar Degas Insights
- Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas was born in Paris, France, in 1834.
- He was the eldest son of a wealthy banker, and a Creole woman from New Orléans, who died when Degas was 13.
- His father appreciated his son’s artistic talent, but he wanted his son to become a lawyer. Thus Degas duly enrolled in law school, but soon dropped out.
- His teachers encouraged Degas to copy the Old Masters at the Louvre. This advice became early practice, and he made many copies of works by Michelangelo, Raphael, and other Renaissance artists.
- Degas was also a sculptor but did not make his sculptures for the public.
- The only sculpture Degas ever exhibited publicly was The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer, in 1881.
- Dancers were frequent subjects in his art, particularly the dancers of the Paris Opera.
- He is famous for his paintings of ballerinas, at work, in rehearsal, or at rest.
- A significant theme of Degas’ work was paintings of women in the bath or at their toilette.
- Degas’ interest in the female nude, persisted throughout his career.
- Horses and horse racing were also key subjects of Degas’s work.
- Degas produced some 45 oil paintings of horse races.
- Degas lived into the 20th century, and promoted his work tirelessly and became an art collector.
- He did have close relationships with several women, including the American painter Mary Cassatt.
- Edgar Degas sided with the “anti-Dreyfusards” the Dreyfus Affair. His antisemitism alienated him from many of his friends.
- Degas was troubled with eye problems. He had to wear dark glasses outdoors and stop his work in 1912.
- Edgar Degas died in Paris in 1917. He was 83 years old.
- Degas never married.
- Today Degas is considered a pioneer of the Impressionism movement.
Edgar Degas Quotes
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“Beauty is a mystery, but no one knows it anymore.
The recipes, the secrets are forgotten.”
~~~
“The creation of a painting takes as much trickery and premeditation as the commitment of a crime.”
~~~
“Everyone has talent at twenty-five. The difficulty is to have it at fifty.”
~~~
“Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.”
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“I should like to be famous and unknown.”
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“Muses work all day long and then at night, get together and dance…”
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“I would rather do nothing than do a rough sketch without having looked at anything. My memories will do better.”
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“Conversation in real life is full of half-finished sentences and overlapping talk. Why shouldn’t painting be too?”
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“Painting is easy when you don’t know how, but very difficult when you do.”
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“Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.”
~~~
“We were created to look at one another, weren’t we?”
~~~
“Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things.”
~~~
The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer by Edgar Degas (1834 – 1917)
Conserving Degas
Edgar Degas 14 year old dancer statue tour guide – NYC Metropolitan museum
Edgar Degas’ ‘Petite danseuse de quatorze ans’
A Virtual Tour of the Metropolitan Museum of Art – MET
MET European Paintings Collection
- “Pygmalion and Galatea” by Jean-Léon
- “Saint Jerome as Scholar” by El Greco
- “Portrait of Juan de Pareja” by Diego Velázquez
- “Camille Monet on a Garden Bench” by Claude Monet
- “View of Toledo” by El Greco
- “The Musicians” by Caravaggio
- “The Death of Socrates” by Jacques-Louis David
- “The Harvesters” by Pieter Bruegel the Elder
- “Young Woman Drawing” by Marie-Denise Villers
- “The Grand Canal, Venice” by J. M. W. Turner
- “The Houses of Parliament (Effect of Fog)” by Claude Monet
- “Madame Cézanne in a Red Dress” by Paul Cézanne
- “The Fortune Teller” by Georges de La Tour
- “The Allegory of Faith” by Johannes Vermeer
- “Garden at Sainte-Adresse” by Claude Monet
- “Wheat Field with Cypresses” by Vincent van Gogh
- “The Repast of the Lion” by Henri Rousseau
- “The Horse Fair” by Rosa Bonheur
- “Two Men Contemplating the Moon” by Caspar David Friedrich
- “Boy with a Greyhound” by Paolo Veronese
- “A Windy Day on the Pont des Arts” by Jean Béraud
- “Sunday at the Church of Saint-Philippe-du-Roule, Paris” by Jean Béraud
- “The Boulevard Montmartre on a Winter Morning” by Camille Pissarro
- “The Sorrow of Telemachus” by Angelica Kauffman
- “Lukas Spielhausen” by Lucas Cranach the Elder
- “The Siesta” by Paul Gauguin
- “Venus and Adonis” by Titian
- “La Grenouillère” by Claude Monet
- “Diana the Huntress” by Giampietrino
- “Ovid among the Scythians” by Eugène Delacroix
- “Whalers” by J. M. W. Turner
- “Picture Gallery with Views of Modern Rome” by Giovanni Paolo Panini
- “Imaginary Gallery of Ancient Roman Art” by Giovanni Paolo Panini
- “Isle of the Dead” by Arnold Böcklin
- “Mont Sainte-Victoire and the Viaduct of the Arc River Valley” by Paul Cézanne
MET Modern and Contemporary Art Collection
- “Reclining Nude” by Amedeo Modigliani
- “Improvisation 27 (Garden of Love II)” by Wassily Kandinsky
- “Jeanne Hébuterne” by Amedeo Modigliani
- “The Card Players” by Paul Cézanne
- “Bathers” by Paul Cézanne
MET Greek and Roman Art Collection
- Statue of a Kouros
- Amathus Sarcophagus
- Mycenaean Terracotta Female Figures
MET Egyptian Art Collection
- The Temple of Dendur
- The Sphinx of Hatshepsut
- William the Faience Hippopotamus
MET Asian Art Collection
- Luohan – Yixian Glazed Ceramic Sculpture
- Pillow with Landscape Scenes – Zhang Family Workshop
- Jar with Dragon
- Fine Wind, Clear Morning by Katsushika Hokusai
MET Ancient Near Eastern Art Collection
- Sumerian Standing Male Worshiper
- Head of a Beardless Royal Attendant – Eunuch
- Human-Headed Winged Bull (Lamassu)
MET American Wing Collection
- “Washington Crossing the Delaware” by Emanuel Leutze
- “Portrait of Madame X” by John Singer Sargent
- “Mother and Child” by Mary Cassatt
- “Fur Traders Descending the Missouri” by George Caleb Bingham
- “The Gulf Stream” by Winslow Homer
- “The Parthenon” by Frederic Edwin Church
- “The Aegean Sea” by Frederic Edwin Church
- “Alexander Hamilton” by John Trumbull
- “Lady at the Tea Table” by Mary Cassatt
- “Ellen Mary Cassatt” by Mary Cassatt
MET Islamic Art Collection
- Blue Qur’an
- Marble Jar of Zayn al-Din Yahya Al-Ustadar
- The Damascus Room
MET Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas Collection
- Benin Ivory Mask
- African Face Mask – Kpeliye’ e
- Sican Funerary Mask – Peru
- Ceremonial Axe – Papua New Guinea
MET European Sculpture and Decorative Arts Collection
- “Hercules the Archer” by Antoine Bourdelle
- “Orpheus and Eurydice” by Auguste Rodin
- “Perseus with the Head of Medusa” by Antonio Canova
- “The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer” by Edgar Degas
- “The Burghers of Calais” by Auguste Rodin
- Spinario (Boy Pulling a Thorn from His Foot) by Antico
MET Medieval Art Collection
- “The Last Supper” by Ugolino di Nerio
- Plaque with the Journey to Emmaus and Noli Me Tangere
- Doorway from the Church of San Nicolò, San Gemini
- Lion Aquamanile – North German
- Equestrian Knight Aquamanile – Lower Saxony
MET Drawings and Prints Collection
- Album of Tournaments and Parades in Nuremberg
- “Canvassing for Votes” by William Hogarth
- “Christ and the Woman of Samaria” by Rembrandt
- Fine Wind, Clear Morning by Katsushika Hokusai
MET Costume Institute Collection
- Bodice
- Cardinal Cape
- Doublet
MET Arms and Armor Collection
- Blade and Mounting for a Sword (Katana)
- Double-Barreled Flintlock Shotgun
MET Photograph Collection
- Loie Fuller Dancing
- Sala Delle Statue, Vatican
- Gardner’s Photographic Sketchbook of the War
MET Musical Instrument Collection
- Ming-Dynasty Pipa
- Grand Piano
- Bass Fluegel Horn in B-flat
Explore
- Masterpieces of The Metropolitan Museum of Art – MET
- The MET Cloisters
- Met Breuer
- Metropolitan Museum of Art – MET
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“We were created to look at one another, weren’t we?”
– Edgar Degas
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Photo Credit: Edgar Degas [Public domain]
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