Edgar Degas (1834–1917) didn’t really like to be called an Impressionist. But he was a founding member of that group of artists who rocked the Paris art world in the late 1800s. Unlike most Impressionists, Degas didn’t like to paint outdoors. He preferred painting the world of Paris theaters, cafés, dance studios, and racetracks. Degas was also fascinated by ballet— approximately 1,500 of his works depict ballet dancers. These are not idealized portraits of Sugarplum Fairies. Instead they emphasize the motions of the human body, the raw physicality of the dancers, and quiet moments behind the curtain.
Toward the end of his life, Degas began to lose his eyesight and turned increasingly to sculpture. He even referred to sculpture as “a blind man’s art.” As he used his bare hands to mold figures in wax, he could rely on his sense of touch rather than his sight. Degas wasn’t interested in creating public monuments or putting his sculpture on display. For him, sculpture was mostly a private pursuit. After the artist’s death, many of his sculptures were cast in bronze.
Little Dancer Aged Fourteen was the only sculpture that Degas exhibited during his lifetime. It appeared in the Impressionist exhibition of 1881, and many artists and critics were shocked when they saw it. Degas dressed the wax figure in a real tutu, stockings, and ballet slippers. The figure also wore a wig tied with a hair ribbon. This type of “mixed media” work was highly unconventional in Degas’s day.
Today, Little Dancer is a popular work that seems to embody the ambitions and travails of all young would-be ballerinas. But to some critics back in 1881, the figure was not only physically ugly but had certain unsavory connotations. The model for Little Dancer, Marie van Goethen, was a student at the Paris Opera ballet school. Like most of her fellow students, Marie was from a poor, working-class background. Girls like Marie were known as rats de l’opéra—opera rats—and some people questioned their moral character. Little Dancer’s posture seems to send mixed signals. She holds her head up like an aloof ballerina but holds her arms awkwardly behind her back like a child. This innovative work by Degas set the stage for future mixed-media sculptures.