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While
The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer was the only sculpture Degas exhibited
during his lifetime, he made more than one hundred wax sculptures of dancers,
bathing women, and horses and jockeys. Most were roughly modeled, almost
like three-dimensional sketches. Just as he drew every part and motion of
his subjects, he used sculpture to fully understand each nuance of a figures
balance, gesture, and movement. In the "arabesque" sculptures, the dancers balance on one leg, the other leg extending back. The arms stretch from the center to counterbalance the figure. For Degas, the arabesque was the perfect gesture for exploring movement in space and the delicate equipoise of the balancing figure. |
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