Where Is Little Dancer of Fourteen Years? Museum Location

Q: Where can I see Little Dancer of Fourteen Years?

Bronze casts exist at multiple museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Musée d'Orsay, and National Gallery of Art.

Q: Who was the model for Little Dancer?

Marie van Goethem, a working-class ballet student at the Paris Opera, modeled for Degas. She was 14 years old, exactly as the title states.

Q: Why was the sculpture controversial?

Degas showed an ordinary girl with imperfect features, dressed in real fabric. Critics expected idealized beauty and were disturbed by such realism in sculpture.

Q: Is the sculpture bronze or wax?

The original was wax with real fabric. After Degas' death, bronze casts were made. Most museum versions are these posthumous bronzes.

Edgar Degas sculpted this nearly life-sized sculpture of a young ballet student for the 1881 Impressionist exhibition. The original wax figure wore a real bodice, tutu, and hair ribbon, shocking viewers who expected idealized bronze nudes. Critics called it "ugly" and compared the girl to a monkey.

Marie van Goethem, the model, was a working-class dancer at the Paris Opera. Degas captured her with unflinching realism: the awkward adolescent posture, the slightly jutting chin, the imperfect features of a real teenager. The work challenged every convention of sculptural beauty.

After Degas' death, bronze casts were made from his original wax. These now reside in major museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Musée d'Orsay, and the National Gallery of Art.

Bronze casts exist at multiple museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Musée d'Orsay, and National Gallery of Art.

Marie van Goethem, a working-class ballet student at the Paris Opera, modeled for Degas. She was 14 years old, exactly as the title states.

Degas showed an ordinary girl with imperfect features, dressed in real fabric. Critics expected idealized beauty and were disturbed by such realism in sculpture.

The original was wax with real fabric. After Degas' death, bronze casts were made. Most museum versions are these posthumous bronzes.

Little Dancer of Fourteen Years

Details

The Artist

More by Edgar Degas

Singer in Green

Madame Rene De Gas

Dancers Practicing at the Barre

Mademoiselle Malo

Related Impressionism Works

Water Lilies (Nymphéas)

Woman with a Parasol

Luncheon of the Boating Party

Two Sisters (On the Terrace)

Arrangement in Grey and Black No.1

Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies

Luncheon of the Boating Party

Impression, Sunrise

About Little Dancer of Fourteen Years

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