Orsay

Nude study for the dressed dancer

Edgar Degas. Between 1921 and 1931

Degas' sculptures are now famous and admired around the world. The 14-year-old Little Dancer, whose work we see here without her tutu, is one of the artist's favorite motifs. And yet, we should never have seen these works. During his lifetime, Degas exhibited only one, The Little Dancer, during the 6th impressionist exhibition of 1881. All the others remained in his studio: it was studies, sketches. Degas wanted them to be destroyed! However, after his death in 1917, his heirs decided to keep these fragile waxes. A few years later, the founder Hébrard made series of bronzes from the originals. Degas would probably have been mad ...