The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer

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Resting easy in the gallery, she watches as hundreds pass by in the wide gallery. Day and night she stands on a platform, nose up and eyes expectant as people idly stop and study her figure. Her stiff posture lures viewers to walk around and inspect her dress, the situation of her hands and the terrible gash on her upper left arm. Little Marie can do nothing but continue to stare out at the paintings lining the walls of the Saint Louis Art Museum, stuck in a bronzed form crafted by an insecure amateur sculptor.
Edgar Degas’ sculpture of The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer has captured the attention of art enthusiasts since its debut at a Parisian Impressionism exhibition in 1881. This was the first and only time he would display any of his work that was not a painting. Degas’ fame lives on primarily through the appreciation of audiences, who enjoy his paintings of ballerinas. The soft light and blending of colors conforms to the typical Impressionistic styles but his focus on capturing an action in progress is what sets his pieces apart from other artists of the time.
Moving away from his established background in painting, Degas sought to explore other mediums. Unsure of his abilities, most of his sculptures never made it past his basement door, where he meticulously slaved over creating realistic forms. The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer was no exception to this. In preparing for the creation of the piece, he enlisted the aid of model Marie van Goethem, a student at the School of Dance in Paris. The little ballerina agreed to pose clothed and nude for the artist on different occasions, helping in his quest to gain a realistic sense of the human body.
On inspection, the work is startling accurate, especially for an artist that typically only focuses on the soft curves of his subjects instead of the sharp angles that both muscles and bones create. The girl stands in a relaxed fourth position, with her weight shifted to the left hip. Her gut pushes forward her pleated ballerina skirt. With hands lightly clasped behind her back, one may notice how exceptionally long the fingers appear. Shoulders rolled back and head turned upwards draw the viewer’s eye to the most significant portion of the piece. The face, which is framed by matted hair, harbors eyes that reveal an inwardly defiant and proud soul and an outwardly expectant student. The entire posture suggests a moment in which a dancer rests in a militantly strict stature, awaiting for teacher’s instructions. Her rumpled bodice and haphazardly tied ribbon suggest rigorous practice. The statue rests on a wooden platform with Degas’ name etched into the corner surface. Even the wood may remind one of the flooring of a dance studio.
The Little Fourteen-Year Old Dancer was not received well on its debut. Critics of Degas’ work argued that the use of mixed materials was unconventional. The figure of the statue and the bodice was created with wax (and later cast in Bronz by a fellow artist in 1922) and the skirt was made of cotton. Even the ribbon tied onto her drooping ponytail was satin and not wax. The degree of realism also threw off initial viewers. The female in the sculpture was not the unearthly beauty of the dancing halls or of paintings of old. Rather, the piece featured a plain, stubborn looking girl. No one wanted to see a mediocre physical appearance and therefore was unable to appreciate the beauty of adolescent anatomy and the accuracy of the sculptor. Marie did not attend the disastrous exhibition and soon fell into obscurity, having quit the school a handful of years later, walking out of history’s light. Despite its negative debut, The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer withstood the test of time to become a celebrated piece of art.