Degas's Little Dancer
Little Dancer Aged Fourteen (1878–1881),
groundbreaking statuette of
a young ballerina that caused a sensation at the 1881 impressionist exhibition,
takes center stage in an exploration of Degas’s fascination with ballet and his
experimental, modern approach to his work. This exhibition (05.10.2014 - 11.01.2015) is presented in conjunction
with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ world-premiere musical Little
Dancer.
Degas was a keen
observer and wry but sympathetic chronicler of the daily life of dancers,
depicting their world off-stage, at rehearsal or in the wings. Degas’s Little Dancer showcases this world of gaslight and struggle, as
captured by the master.
One of the
Gallery’s most popular works of art, Little Dancer Aged Fourteen will be presented with 14 additional works from the
Gallery’s collection, including the monumental pastel Ballet Scene (c. 1907), monotypes and smaller original statuettes
by Degas that are related to Little Dancer Aged Fourteen. The exhibition also includes the oil painting The Dance Class from the Corcoran Gallery of Art.
The National
Gallery of Art has the largest and most important collection of Degas’s
surviving original wax sculptures in the world. Its wax version of Little Dancer Aged Fourteen is the only one formed by the artist’s own hands and
the only sculpture he ever showed publicly. Degas did not carve sculpture but
used an additive process. Little Dancer Aged Fourteen was modeled in wax over a metal armature, bulked with
organic materials including wood, rope, and even old paintbrushes in the arms.
Degas elevated the sculpture’s realism by affixing a wig of human hair and
giving his ballerina a cotton-and-silk tutu, a cotton faille bodice, and linen
slippers. (Text: National Gallery of Art Washington)