Edgar Degas (1834-1917)

Danseuse au repos, les mains sur les reins, la jambe droite en avant (Dancer at rest, hands behind herback, right leg forward)

Details

Edgar Degas (1834-1917)
Danseuse au repos, les mains sur les reins, la jambe droite en avant (Dancer at rest, hands behind herback, right leg forward)
stamped with signature, numbered and stamped with foundry mark 'Degas 63/K A.A. HEBRARD CIRE PERDUE' (on the top of the base)
bronze with green and black patina
Height: 17 in. (43.8 cm.)
Original wax version executed in 1892-1895; this bronze version cast in 1919-1921

Literature

J. Rewald, Degas: Works in Sculpture, A Complete Catalogue, London, 1944, p. 22, no. XXII (another cast illustrated twice, pp. 72-73).
L. Browse, Degas Dancers, London, 1949, no. 196 (another cast illustrated).
J. Lassaigne and F. Minervino, Tout l'oeuvre peint de Degas, Paris, 1974, p. 141, no. S24 (another cast illustrated).
C.W. Millard, The Sculpture of Edgar Degas, Princeton, 1976, fig. 47 (another cast illustrated; identified as XXII).
J. Rewald, Studies in Post-Impressionism, New York, 1986, p. 142, no. 33 (another cast illustrated).
J. Rewald, Degas's Complete Sculpture: Catalogue Raisonn, San Francisco, 1990, pp. 82-83, no. XXII (wax version and another cast illustrated).
S. Campbell, A Catalogue of Degas' Bronzes, Apollo, vol. CXLII, no. 402, August 1995, pp. 41-42, no. 63 (another cast illustrated, fig. 61).

Lot Essay

In addition to his practice of drawing and tracing sequences of poses in order to explore their compositional possibilities, Degas also used sculpture, which he rendered principally in wax, to establish a pose that he would later utilize in his drawings and pastels. Richard Kendell, in his exhibition Degas: Beyond Impressionism, The Art Institute of Chicago, 1996, has followed the use of the pose in the present sculpture in no fewer than six late works which he assembled for the exhibition. Degas also repeated this pose in Danseuse au repos, les mains sur les reins, la jambe droite en avant (Rewald, no. XXIII) and in clothed form in Danseuse habill au repos, les mains sur les reins, la jambe droite en avant (Rewald, no. LII).