Degas Little Dancer Analysis PDF

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An analysis and response to Degas' Little Dancer sculpture...

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Analysis of Degas’ Little Dancer of Fourteen Years A bronze cast of Edgar Degas’ Little Dancer of Fourteen Years can be found in the St. Louis Art Museum. The statuette stands in a ballerina’s pose in the middle of gallery 217. The replica is enhanced, like the original, through the use of real materials such as a dress and hair bow. Through the use of such materials as well as his method of sculpture, Degas was able to create a truly realistic, modern sculpture, paving the way for future sculptors in the following century. Degas’ Little Dancer of Fourteen Years was created around 1880, and recast in bronze around 1920 after the artist’s death. The sculpture stands at approximately 38 inches tall and 16 inches wide, the small stature emphasizing the adolescence of the subject. However, the appearance of the subject is not one of an innocent girl. The skin is not smooth but shows the texture of the wax. The movements of the artist’s hands and tools can be seen in the ridges especially on the arms and legs, giving the sculpture a weathered appearance. The materials and technique used in the original sculpture are perhaps the most important to giving it this overall effect. The sculpture was created from colored beeswax, air-dried clay, and a non-drying clay called plastiline (Failing). The sculpture was built by adding wax and clay layer by layer over armatures to create the figure. According to Arnason and Mansfield, this created a surface “in which the touch of [Degas’] hand is directly recorded” (34). The type of materials and techniques used by the artist all contribute to the overall effect of the subject. Although the subject is a fourteen year old ballerina, the overall tone of the sculpture is not so simple. The elements of the sculpture contradict themselves at times, leaving the viewer with a subject that is somehow both young and innocent, and simultaneously wise beyond her years. The realistic elements of the sculpture lend to the image of the young girl aspiring to be a dancer. The sculpture is

Goser 2 dressed in a tutu and real ballet slippers coated in pink wax, as well as a ribbon holding back real human hair (Failing). These details give the piece an air of innocence as the viewer imagines the real child the work is based on. However, the girl’s pose and overall appearance suggest a more difficult life. Amy Henderson argues that it is “the thrust of her chin, the way she held her body,” that gives her the appearance of a not just a young girl, but a survivor (Henderson). The model for Little Dancer of Fourteen Years was Marie van Goethem, a dancer at the Paris Opera Ballet. She was not a professional dancer, but an “opera rat,” a poor child who joined the opera to escape poverty. Her older sister was a prostitute and her younger sister also worked as a dancer at the opera (Henderson). These details about the model’s life are hinted at in Degas’ sculpture of a girl who appears to have the weight of the world on her shoulders but still stands strong in a confident pose. There are also darker interpretations of this piece including themes of sexuality and prostitution. At the time of its creation, many artists explored the morality of teenage girls, specifically working class girls, in their art. The National Gallery of Art suggests a connection between Degas’ dancer and Renoir’s three paintings, Dancer, Parisienne, and La Loge. Critics have suggested that these paintings show the “three stages that the young women of Paris often go through from teenager to prostitute” (“Modeling Movement”). There are many similar comments about Degas’ dancer, especially given her age. Age fourteen can be seen as on the brink of maturity and it was the age that student dancers began to transition into professionals. This interpretation was popular at the time the sculpture was created. In this view, the half-closed eyes and proud pose of the girl became signs of seduction, not confidence, turning the young dancer into “a calculating sexual predator” (“Modeling Movement”).

Goser 3 Degas’ life and the society he lived and worked in also contributed to the creation of his art work. Many of Degas’ other pieces focused on lower-class, working women, including laundresses, prostitutes, and cabaret singers. However, Degas was most fascinated by the opera and ballet, but at the time ballet could barely be considered an art form, and it came with many negative connotations (including those of prostitution discussed above). This allowed Degas to focus his work on the real difficulties of the working dancers’ lives. Rather than present a romanticized image of a ballerina, he wanted to show the dancers “under stress, cracking their joints… their youthful spirits crushed” (Richardson). This focus on the hardships of the girls’ lives plays a role in the way the subject is presented in Little Dancer of Fourteen Years. While her pose is strong, the girl appears young, malnourished, and worn down in many ways. Degas’ views of the dancers were also shaped by the misogynist society he grew up in. He viewed women, including the dancers, as animals, calling the ballerinas his “little monkey girls” (Richardson). This image of the dancers as animalistic may be the reason that the face of the dancer appears primitive and ugly to some critics. The Little Dancer of Fourteen Year was the only sculpture Degas exhibited in his lifetime, shown at the 1881 Impressionist exhibition (Arnason and Mansfield 34). However, there are several sketches that show the relationship of this work to his other pieces. Three Studies of a Nude Dancer, done in 1878, show the outline of a figure from three different angles. This may have been an attempt to visualize what his dancer would look like in the round. The National Gallery of Art also notes that in the corner of the drawing is the sketch of an armature that would be the basis of the Little Dancer (“Modeling Movement”). Another more complete piece is Degas’ Three Studies of a Dancer in Fourth Position, created around 1879. This shows the subject from the sculpture standing in the same pose.

Goser 4 Unlike the nude studies, it also includes the facial features, clothing, and even the hair present on the final sculpture (“Modeling Movement”). Degas’ Little Dancer of Fourteen Years is perhaps the most well-known of his work, although it is not so simple as it appears. The medium, found materials, and history of the model and artist all work together to create an overall effect that is highly complex. Whether the work brings to mind a hardworking dancer or the more negative interpretations of prostitution, the realism of Degas’ work is sure to leave a strong impression on the viewer. Finally, the combination of traditional sculpture and found objects such as the hair bow and the clothing turn Degas’ Little Dancer into a modern Impressionist sculpture that was ahead of its time.

Goser 5 Works Cited Arnason, H.H, and Elizabeth Mansfield. History of Modern Art. 7th ed., Pearson, 2013. Failing, Patricia. “Unraveling the Mysteries of Degass Sculpture.” ARTnews, 1 May 2011, www.artnews.com/2011/05/01/unraveling-the-mysteries-of-degass-sculpture/. Henderson, Amy. “The True Story of the Little Ballerina Who Influenced Degas' ‘Little Dancer’ .” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 4 Nov. 2014, www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/true-story-little-ballerina-who-influenceddegas-little-dancer-180953201/. “Modeling Movement: Degas's Dancers.” National Gallery of Art, NGA, 2017, www.nga.gov/features/modeling-movement.html. Richardson, John. “Degas and the Dancers.” The Hive, Vanity Fair, 30 Jan. 2015, www.vanityfair.com/news/2002/10/degas200210....