Lot 125
  • 125

Edgar Degas

Estimate
500,000 - 700,000 USD
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Description

  • Edgar Degas
  • Danseuse regardant la plante de son pied droit (troisième étude)
  • Inscribed Degas, numbered 69/N and stamped with the foundry mark Cire Perdue A.A. Hebrard
  • Bronze
  • Height: 19 1/4 in.
  • 49 cm

Provenance

Marlborough Fine Art, Ltd., London
Emile Bührle, Zurich (acquired from the above on January 2, 1952)
Private Collection, Zurich (by descent from the above and sold: Sotheby's, New York, November 5, 2008, lot 107)
Acquired at the above sale 

Literature

John Rewald & Leonard von Matt, L'Oeuvre sculpté de Degas, no. IL, illustrations of another cast pls. 59-61
John Rewald, Degas's Complete Sculpture, Catalogue Raisonné, San Francisco, 1990, no. XLIX, illustrations of another cast pp. 136-37
Anne Pingeot, Degas Sculptures, Paris, 1991, no. 34, illustration of another cast n.p.
Sara Campbell, "A Catalogue of Degas' Bronzes" in Apollo, August, 1995, no. 69, illustratation of another cast p. 45
Joseph Czestochowski & Anne Pingeot, Degas Sculptures: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Bronzes, Memphis, 2002-03, illustration in color of another cast pp. 256-57

Condition

Work is in very good condition. Rich golden brown patina. Original casting joints visible. Some surface dirt in crevices.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

This delightful bronze sculpture reflects Edgar Degas’ interest in depicting movement, a theme that saw classical ballet provide an inexhaustible source of inspiration for him. Degas' models usually performed at the Paris Opéra, and many of these young dancers came to his studio to pose for him. Toward the end of his life, Degas became more focused on the dancer than on dance itself, modelling girls in informal positions outside of the context of formal class or performances. John Rewald explains: "It was in his passionate search for movement that all the statuettes of dancers doing arabesques, bowing, rubbing their knees… and so on were created. All of these women were caught in poses which represent one single instant, in an arrested movement which is pregnant with the movement just completed and the one about to follow" (John Rewald, op. cit., p. 23). In the present work, the dancer nimbly balances on one leg and turns around in contrapposto to examine the bottom of her right foot, highlighting her agility and natural grace, seemingly unaware of her spectator.

Degas had a preference for a limited number of poses that he found particularly exciting, and he often created studies of the same pose in sketches and wax models. The pose of the dancer in the present work is clearly one that the artist especially liked as there are several known bronzes and drawings of girls in subtle variations of this position. Although supported by a bench, the dancer in the foreground of Degas’ painting La Classe de ballet (see fig. 1) also assumes a similar pose as she adjusts her right point shoe. As described by Ann Dumas: "Sculpture for Degas was essentially private and experimental, an integral part of the inner creative processes that nurtured his art in all media" (Ann Dumas, "Degas: Sculptor/Painter" in Joseph Czestochowski & Anne Pingeot, op. cit., p. 47).

Degas, in fact, only publicly exhibited one sculpture during his lifetime: Petite danseuse de quatorze ans (1878–81), which was shown at the Impressionist Exhibition in Paris in 1881. His statuettes can truly be seen as three-dimensional displays of his exploration of the human form, complementing his two-dimensional studies on paper. The tactile surface quality of the present work reflects Degas’ experimentation, and Jill DeVonyar and Richard Kendall wrote that he, "energized [the models’] surfaces with knives, spatulas, finger-marks, and accidental effects" (Jill De Vonyar & Richard Kendall, Degas and the Dance (exhibition catalogue), Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit & Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, 2002-03, pp. 245-46). As an insight into his creative mind and a representation of both movement and the ballet, two defining features of the artist’s oeuvre, the present work is a remarkable example of Degas’ sculptures.

The original wax model was executed between 1896-1911 and cast in an edition of twenty-two bronze examples beginning in 1919, lettered from A to T, plus additional casts, numbered HER, HER.D and AP, reserved for the Degas heirs and the Hébrard Foundry. The number 69 refers to the subject number, which was assigned to the work when it was included in the first exhibition of Degas sculptures at the Hébrard Foundry in 1921.