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The Fourteen-year-old Dancer (Petite Danseuse De Quatorze Ans, 1879-1881), Edgar Degas' beloved sculpture of a young ballerina, is here reproduced from the original wax model which had a tinted skin tone color. Many reproductions are completed after the bronze castings. But this one is special because it retains the details and colors of the very first, original statue he ever showed -- the original completed in wax!

ABOUT THE ORIGINAL ARTWORK:
After beginning to lose his eyesight after his fiftieth birthday, Degas became increasingly dependent on his sense of touch and so started to turn from painting to sculpting. Although during the last period of his life he hardly ever showed his work to anybody, he decided after working the The Dancer for than two years, to send his work to the impressionist exhibition in Paris.

After he had carefully sculpted the body, he had the clothes custom made: the bodice, the net dancing skirt and the ballet shoes. On top of the bodice he then worked again with wax, so this was to become a solid part of the figure when it was cast in bronze. He expected a sympathetic reations from the audience, but they were at an utter loss. It was obviously too realistic. 'Mister Degas dreamed of an ideal picture of ugliness. The fortunate man! He has achieved it ...', a critic wrote. He was known as a painter and now he had designed something that seemed to laugh at all the traditional values of the art of sculpting, which was something the audience just could not understand.

After this experience Degas never exhibited any of his work again. Looking back, he was clearly ahead of his time and he had developed a degree of objective realism for which his contemporaries were not in the slightes prepared. It is a lifelike sculpture, with her chin lifted into the air and her immature body, the girl is standing before us, ready to start moving whilst at the same time she seems motionless and timeless -- so characterist of the true art which outlives its time to splendidly.

Material : Collectible quality, resin with hand-painted color details, matte and glossy finish. Statue replica is from the highly collectible Parastone Mouseion 3D Collection.

Included : Full color card with image of original artwork. Description card about artist and artwork. Both cards are in four languages.

Dimensions : 8.5 in. x 3.25 in. x 3.25 in.

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Related Categories: Children/Family , Dance , Impressionism , Edgar Degas , Female , NEW ITEMS , PARASTONE COLLECTION