Lot 4

Property from the Estate of Lucille Ellis Simon It is a tremendous responsibility to leave anything behind in bronze - this medium is for eternity. (A. Vollard, Degas, Paris, 1924, p. 112). THE HEBRARD FOUNDRY After Degas' death in 1917, Joseph Durand-Ruel discovered approximately one hundred and fifty wax statuettes scattered throughout Degas' studio. The extent of Degas' sculptural oeuvre was surprising as he had exhibited only one sculpture in his lifetime, Petite danseuse de quatorze ans, at the 1881 Impressionist exhibition. Many of the waxes had deteriorated beyond repair, but seventy-four statuettes were salvageable, and in 1918 the decision was made to recreate them in bronze. The contract between the artist's heirs and the Hébrard foundry stipulated that the foundry would make twenty-two casts of each of the wax statuettes with one complete set reserved for Degas' heirs and one for the Hébrard foundry. In 1919, the master founder Albino Palazzolo began the process of translating the wax models into bronze and in 1921 Louisine Havemeyer purchased the first complete set under the recommendation of Mary Cassatt. The casting process employed by Palazzolo was shrouded in mystery for many years. In 1919 Durand-Ruel predicted that Degas' waxes "will be destroyed . . . they are actually so dry and in such poor condition that they can hardly last much longer" (J. Durand-Ruel, letter to Royal Cortissoz) and in 1944 John Rewald, in his catalogue raisonné, confirmed their destruction. However, in 1955 the Hébrard family surprised the art world by selling the original waxes to the collector Paul Mellon and then further clouded our understanding of the casting process by selling a previously unknown set of bronzes to Alex Reid & Lefevre, Ltd., who then sold them to the Norton Simon Foundation in 1976. Today we now know that this set of modèle sold to Norton Simon were cast by Palazzolo from the original waxes and used as the master set to produce all subsequent authorized bronze casts of the artist's work. The result of Palazzolo's technical genius resulted in a body of bronzes which successfully captured Degas' experimentation in both technical and aesthetic realms. Thanks to Palazzolo's respect for the artist's work and his diligence in recreating exact copies of the waxes, the bronzes offer an insight into Degas' artistic process.

Edgar Degas (1834-1917)

Arabesque sur la jambe droite, la main droite près de terre, le bras gauche en dehors

Details

Edgar Degas (1834-1917)
Arabesque sur la jambe droite, la main droite près de terre, le bras gauche en dehors
stamped with signature, numbered, and stamped with foundry mark 'Degas 2/HER A.A. HÉBRARD CIRE PERDUE' (Lugt 658; on the base)
bronze with brown-black patina
Height: 111/8 in. (28.3 cm.)
Original wax model executed 1882-1895; this bronze version cast 1919-1921 in an edition of twenty-two, numbered A to T plus two casts reserved for the Degas heirs and the founder Hébrard

Provenance

Paul Rosenberg & Co., Inc., New York.
Mr. and Mrs. Norton Simon, Los Angeles (acquired from the above, 1964). Lucille Ellis Simon, Los Angeles.

Literature

J. Rewald, Degas, Works in Sculpture, A Complete Catalogue, New York, 1944, p. 24, no. XLI (another cast illustrated, p. 96).
P. Boral, Les sculptés inédites de Degas, Geneva, 1947, pl. 17 (another cast illustrated).
J. Rewald and L. von Matt, L'oeuvre sculpté de Degas, Zurich, 1957, p. 152, no. XLI (another cast illustrated, fig. 17).
F. Russoli, L'opera completa di Degas, Milan, 1970, p. 140, no. S3 (another cast illustrated).
J. Rewald, Degas's Complete Sculpture: Catalogue Raisonné, San Francisco, 1990, pp. 120-121, no. XLI (original wax model and another cast illustrated).
A. Pingeot, Degas Sculptures, Paris, 1991, p. 154, no. 3 (original wax model illustrated).
S. Campbell, "A Catalogue of Degas' Bronzes", Apollo, vol. CXLII (no. 402), August 1995, p. 12, no. 2 (another cast illustrated).

Lot Essay

Degas' sculpture seems to have grown out of a desire to fully understand different poses of his subjects that he had already explored in paintings, pastels and drawings. While it is almost certain that Degas used his wax sculptures as models for some of his later drawings and paintings, he also seems to have gained much pleasure from the act of modelling wax and clay for its own sake with no intention of exhibiting these sculptures in public--a fact that emphasises the essentially private and exploratory aspect of this part of his oeuvre.

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