The Dancer by Edgar Degas (Donna)

"La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans" ("Little Dancer of Fourteen Years"), c. 1881, is a sculpture by Edgar Degas of a young dance student named Marie van Goethem. The sculpture was originally made in wax before it was cast in 1922 in bronze.

"Little Dancer of Fourteen Years old" is made from wax, an unusual choice of material for a sculpture of this time, dressed in a cotton skirt with a hair ribbon, sitting on a wooden base.

When the "La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans" was shown in Paris at the Sixth Impressionist Exhibition of 1881, it received mixed reviews. The majority of critics were shocked by the piece. They thought it was ugly, that it looked like a medical specimen, in part because Degas exhibited it inside a glass case. Some considered the head and face grotesque and primitive.

His heirs (wife and daughter) made the decision to have 27 of them cast in bronze. The casting went on at the Hébrard foundry in Paris from 1920 until the mid-20th Century, producing the posthumous Degas bronzes that can be seen in many museums. Sixty-nine original sculptures in wax and mixed-media survived the casting process.

One copy of "La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans" is currently owned by the creator and owner of Auto Trader, John Madejski. He stated that he bought the sculpture by accident. John Madejski's was sold for 13,257,250 £ ($ 19,077,250) at Sotheby's on February, 3rd 2009.

To make this little dancer, Degas used a skeleton made out of paintbrushes. In the end for a finishing touch he used a wig out of real hair to put on the model. He then covered it with wax. The only part of the original sculpture not covered with wax was a ribbon given to him from the model, Marie van Goethem, and a real tutu. Each museum that shows this figure gives it a different tutu.

The original wax model was acquired by Paul Mellon in 1956. Beginning in 1985, Mr and Mrs Mellon gave the US National Gallery of Art 49 Degas waxes, 10 bronzes and 2 plasters, the largest group of original Degas sculptures, among them this sculpture.

Our Interpretation


Because the brief covered humanity as a whole, we decided, as all of our other ideas feature adults, it would be a good idea to have one that represented a child, as Bloomberg provide financial services for all aspects of life.  The Dancer stood out to us as things like extracurricular activities (such as ballet!) can be expensive, and are part and parcel of being a parent and managing your money.

I asked my daughter Mia to wear her old ballet leotard and tutu, and to recreate the pose as closely as possible.  The image was taken in front of my garden hedge to provide a fairly neutral background that has a bit of visual interest.

This is the contact sheet showing the images I took on the day.

This is the final image (left), compared to the OOC photograph (right)

I decided to tone the image with dark yellows to give it a vintage feel and also to hint towards the look of the cast bronze statue.  Apart from this, and a few minor bits of cloning out of the marks on the floor, the image is relatively untouched.  I'm pleased with the way it turned out too, its obvious what it is emulating and the editing compliments it well.