Danseuse se frottant le genou

Details

Edgar Degas (1834-1917)
Danseuse se frottant le genou
stamped with signature, foundry mark and numbered on the top of the base 'Degas' [Lugt 658] 'A.A. HEBRARD CIRE PERDUE 39/HER.D'
bronze with brown patina
Height: 12¼in. (31cm.)
Original wax version executed 1882-1895; this bronze version cast 1919-1923

Provenance

André Derain, Paris; sale, Galerie Charpentier, Paris, March 22, 1955, lot 136 (illustrated, pl. XXXIII)
M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York
Norton Simon, Los Angeles (acquired from the above, 1955); sale, Sotheby's, New York, May 2, 1973, lot 3
Anon. sale, Sotheby's, London, June 29, 1983, lot 16
Waddington Galleries, London
Maxwell Davidson Gallery, New York
Achim Moeller Ltd., London (acquired by the present owner, circa 1984)

Literature

J. Rewald, Degas: Works in Sculpture, A Complete Catalogue, London, 1944, no. XLVIII (another cast illustrated, pp. 106 and 107)
P. Borel, Les sculptures inédites de Degas, Geneva, 1949, pls. 16 and 17 (another cast illustrated)
F. Russoli and F. Minervo, L'opera completa di Degas, Milan, 1970, no. S27 (another cast illustrated, p. 142)
C.W. Millard, The Sculpture of Edgar Degas, Princeton, 1976, figs. 76 and 80 (other casts illustrated)
J. Rewald, Degas's Complete Sculpture: Catalogue Raisonné, San Francisco, 1990, no. XLVIII (other casts illustrated, pp. 134 and 135)
A. Pingeot and F. Horvat, Degas Sculptures, Paris, 1991, no. 27 (another cast illustrated, pp. 142, 143 and 165)
S. Campbell, "A Catalogue of Degas' Bronzes," Apollo, vol. CXLII, no. 402, Aug., 1995, no. 39 (another cast illustrated, p. 29)

Exhibited

London, The Lefevre Gallery (Alex. Reid & Lefevre, Ltd.), The Complete Sculptures of Degas, Nov.-Dec., 1976, no. 27 (illustrated, p. 46)

Lot Essay

When this work was exhibited for the first time, in 1921 at Galerie Hébrard, it was incorrectly titled "Dancer Rubbing Her Knee". Presumably the generic title was invented because the founder who edited the bronzes, Hébrard, was unaware of the relationship of the original wax to Degas's series of seven pastels depicting scenes from [the ballet] "Les Jumeaux de Bergame"... Here Degas has captured the moment in which a nimble female dancer in the male role of Harlequin Senior, poised with her feet planted in an exaggerated fourth position, if about to pantomime "her" discovery that the lout "she" has just attacked with a baton is Harlequin Junior, "her" brother. The contrapposto for the figure and the expectant lean forward are somehow sufficient to convery the high drama of the moment... Notwithstanding the lack of detail in the face, the large eye sockets, big cheeks, and smile confer upon it an uncanny resemblance to that of Mlle Marie Sanlaville, the première danseuse who danced the role of Harlequin Senior in the 1886 production of the ballet "Les Jumeaux de Bergame". (G. Tinterow, Degas, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, exhibition catalogue, 1988, pp. 433 and 434)