Little Dancer Aged Fourteen

1878–1881

Pigmented beeswax, clay, metal armature, rope, paintbrushes, human hair, silk and linen ribbon, cotton faille bodice, cotton and silk tutu, linen slippers, on wooden base, 98.9 × 34.7 × 35.2 cm. National Gallery of Art, Washington

A wax figure of a pupil of the Paris Opéra ballet school. It is the only sculpture Degas ever exhibited, and the original behind the later bronzes.

Degas gave her real hair, a cloth bodice, a tutu and slippers. He pushed the Impressionist interest in real, unidealized modern people into sculpture and its materials.
Shown at the sixth Impressionist exhibition in 1881; critics called the girl ugly but admitted how real she looked.
The model was Marie van Goethem, an Opéra ballet pupil whose mother was a laundress.
X-rays show Degas remodeled the head; old paintbrushes inside stiffen the arms.
Paul Mellon bought this wax in 1956 and left it to the National Gallery of Art in 1999.

Most ballet pupils came from working-class families like the model's. The museum notes that these poor girls could become targets for men posing as "protectors."

Image: National Gallery of Art Open Access · CC0