Sculpture Dancer looking at the sole of her foot Edgar Degas

Reproduction hand patinated on a black wooden base.
Mold made from an impression of the original work by Hilaire Germain Edgar de Gas, known as Degas.

Degas' demanding nature led him to sculpture in the late 1860s to better understand the movement and his studies were only intended to improve his paintings...

Reproduction hand patinated on a black wooden base.
Mold made from an impression of the original work by Hilaire Germain Edgar de Gas, known as Degas.

Degas' demanding nature led him to sculpture in the late 1860s to better understand the movement and his studies were only intended to improve his paintings.

He never showed them except for the little fourteen-year-old dancer he exhibited in 1881 at the sixth Impressionist exhibition.
Degas refused to have his sculptures cast in bronze as the dealer Vollard would have wanted. This material would prevent him from doing it again, he thought.

However, he agreed to have three of his studies cast around 1900, including this dancer looking at the sole of her right foot. He therefore considered it finished, although he reworked this pose until the end of his life.
This balancing dancer is part of the artist's research on the rotating movement, the unstable character of the body.