Danseuse - position de quatrième devant sur la jambe gauche, première étude

Edgar Degas first achieved fame with his paintings of Parisian metropolitan life at the end of the 19th century. Ballet and dance were among his preferred subjects, with the artist extending his experimentation with motifs of movement to his sculptural work. In this piece, Degas concentrates on the physical presence of the dancer, while the manual traces of his modeling work remain clearly visible and develop their own artistic expressiveness.

Barely individualized, his female nudes are completely dedicated to capturing an instant of movement. Their expansive gestures radiate an unmistakable liveliness and spontaneity, and simultaneously display the attempt to elevate the body, devoid of decorative embellishments, to a vehicle of expression in its own right. Frequently executed in wax, the works were, with one exception, never exhibited during Degas’s lifetime and were known only to close friends. Consequently, a precise dating of the works remains difficult to this day.