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Artist or Maker: EDGAR DEGAS (1834-1917)
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Dimensions: Height: 22 1/2in. 57.2cm
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Provenance: Property from the Collection of Meyer & Vivian
Potamkin
Halvorsen, New York
Durand-Ruel, New York
(acquired on December 6, 1922 and until at least December 27, 1922)
Ferargil Galleries, New York (by 1925)
Private Collection, New York
Arthur and Julia Bloch, Philadelphia
Carlen Galleries, Philadelphia
(acquired fom the above)
Acquired from the above circa
1955
Exhibited
New York, Durand-Ruel Gallery,
Exhibition
of bronzes by Degas, 1843-1917, 1922, no. 11
Philadelphia,
Provident National Bank, Potamkin Sculpture Show, 1964
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Peale House
Galleries, Art Collecting Philadelphia Style: Selected Works from a Private
Collection, 1968, no. 42
Harrisburg, William Penn Memorial
Museum, An Alumnus Salutes Dickinson College 200th Anniversary (From
the Collection of Meyer and Vivian Potamkin, 1972-1973, no. 37
New Orleans Museum of Art, Sculpture by Edgar Degas,
1975
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Notes: Literature:
Exposition des Sculptures de Degas
(exhibition catalogue), Galerie A.A. Hébrard, Paris, 1921, no. 11, another cast
listed
Degas, portraitiste, sculpteur (exhibition catalogue),
Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, 1931, no. 11, another cast listed
Paul Vitry, Catalogue des Sculptures du Moyen Age, de la
Renaissance et des Temps modernes, Suppléments, Paris, 1933,
no. 1728, another cast listed
John Rewald, Degas: Works in
Sculpture, New York, 1944, no. XLIV, illustration of another cast p.
99
Jeu de Paume, Peintures et Sculptures exposées au Musée de
l'impressionnisme. Les Impressionnistes, leurs précurseurs et leurs
contemporains, Paris, 1947, no. 294, another cast listed
John
Rewald and Leonard von Matt, L'oeuvre sculpté de
Degas, Zürich, 1957, no. XLIV, illustrations of other casts pls. 43
and 44
Franco Russoli and Fiorella Minervino, L'opera
completa di Degas, Milan, 1970, no. S11, illustration of another cast
p. 141
Charles W. Millard, The Sculpture of Edgar Degas,
Princeton, 1976, fig. 89, illustration of another cast (as dating from between
1885-1890)
John Rewald, The Complete Sculpture of
Degas (exhibition catalogue), The Lefevre Gallery, London, 1976,
no. 11, illustration of another cast p. 30
John Rewald, Degas's
Complete Sculpture, Catalogue Raisonné, San Francisco, 1990, no.
XLIV, illustration of another cast p. 126
Anne Pingeot and Frank Horvat,
Degas Sculpture, Paris, 1991, no. 11, illustration of another cast
p. 157
Sarah Campbell, "Degas' Bronzes,"
Apollo, London, August 1995, no. 5, illustration of another cast
p. 13
Richard Kendall, Degas and the Little Dancer
(exhibition catalogue), Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha; Sterling and Francine
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown; The Baltimore Museum of Art, 1998-99, no.
55, illustration of another cast pl. 55
Degas' fascination with
the human form is perhaps nowhere more evident than in his sculptures of
dancers. The artist would first execute these figures in wax on an armature,
positioning their limbs in the various poses of the ballet. For his paintings and
drawings of these dancers, Degas relied upon his ability to translate the
figures of his models onto a two dimensional surface. But the act of sculpting
enabled him to more readily manipulate form, as if allowing him by proxy a
more direct relationship with the dancer's body. His fingerprints,
which are evident throughout the surface of these sculptures, are a clear
indicator of this inherently tactile process.
For the present work,
Degas rendered his figure in the classical ballet stance known as the ``fourth
position.'' The artist also completed two other figures in this
same position (Rewald nos. XLIII and LV), and the present work is
considered to be the third and final rendition (troisième état).
Discussing another of Degas' figures in the fourth position, Jill
DeVonyar and Richard Kendall have written, ``Her firm musculature enables
her to hold a precarious stance with great poise; the confident
'centering' of her body weight gives the impression of
effortlessness even though she stands on a single leg"(Jill DeVonyar
and Richard Kendall, Degas and the Dance (exhibition
catalogue), The Detroit Institute of Arts; The Philadelphia Museum of Art,
2002-03, p. 155).
The original wax model was executed between
1882-1895 and cast in an edition of twenty-two bronze examples between
1919 and 1921, numbered from A to T, plus two casts, numbered HER and
HERD, reserved for the Degas heirs and Hébrard. The number 5 refers to
the subject in the inventory of the wax models in the artist's studio.
