Detail of Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer by Degas in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, February 2008

The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer, 19th–20th century (executed ca. 1880; cast in 1922)
By Edgar Degas (1834–1917), Sculptor; Cast by A. A. Hébrard, Founder
Made in Paris, France
Bronze, partially tinted, with cotton skirt and satin hair-ribbon; wood base; H. (w/out base) 39 in. (99.1 cm)
H.O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H.O. Havemeyer, 1929 (29.100.370)

Degas exhibited the original version of this sculpture at the sixth Impressionist exhibition, in 1881. The wax figure, tinted to simulate flesh, was clothed in a real bodice, tutu, and ballet slippers and topped by a horsehair wig tied with a silk ribbon. The care with which Degas observed his model, a ballet student in the Paris Opéra named Marie van Goethem, is reflected in the extraordinary number of surviving sketches in charcoal and pastel as well as in the preparatory sculptural study of the figure in the nude.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/collection_database/The_Li...