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Bronze sculpture of a woman in a ballet pose, arms splayed as her left leg points higher up into the air.

A nude female figure balances perfectly on her straight right leg while her left leg gracefully extends upward, toes pointing, higher than the rest of her body. She is bent at the hips and her arms extend wide outward with her left arm parallel to the base, right arm is lower, both palms are open. Her pose forms a dramatic diagonal line. Her head faces her right hand, the hair is set into a neat bun on top of her head.

Gallery Text

The arabesque is an essential position in classical ballet and features frequently and in many media — particularly sculpture and pastel — in Degas’s work. This bronze is an example of the artist’s probing attempt to depict the pose, in which all parts of the dancer’s body are fully extended. It captures a sequence of movement, revealing, as his equestrian bronzes also do, Degas’s fascination with the stop-action photography of Eadweard Muybridge. Unlike the photographs, however, Degas’s three-dimensional figures explore the full spatial and physical complexity of motion.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1951.78
People
Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas, French (Paris, France 1834 - 1917 Paris, France)
Title
Grande Arabesque, Third Time
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture
Date
c. 1885-1890
Culture
French
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/228475

Location

Location
Level 1, Room 1220, European Art, 19th–20th century, Collection of Maurice Wertheim, Class of 1906
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Physical Descriptions

Medium
Bronze
Dimensions
40.6 x 26 x 34.6 cm (16 x 10 1/4 x 13 5/8 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: proper r. side of top of base: Degas
  • stamp: proper rear of top of base, stamped: CIRE / PERDUE / A A HEBRARD
  • inscription: proper rear of top of base, stamped: 16 / D

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
[Justin Thannhauser, New York, NY], sold; to Maurice Wertheim, 1945; bequest to the Fogg Art Museum, 1951.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest from the Collection of Maurice Wertheim, Class of 1906
Accession Year
1951
Object Number
1951.78
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

THIS WORK HAS SIGNIFICANT LOAN RESTRICTIONS BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.

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Publication History

  • Alfred M. Frankfurter, "Today's Collectors: Modern Milestones", Art News (June 1946), vol. XLV, no. 4, repr. in b/w p. 30
  • French Painting since 1870, lent by Maurice Wertheim, Class of 1906, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1946), p. 70, repr. p. 71
  • The Maurice Wertheim Catalogue: Modern French Art-- Monet to Picasso, exh. cat., North Carolina Museum of Art (Raleigh, NC, 1960), p. 70, repr. p. 71
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection: Manet to Picasso, exh. cat., The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (Houston, TX, 1962), p. 64, pl. 30
  • Michèle Beaulieu, "Les Sculptures de Degas. Essai de Chronologie", La Revue du Louvre (1969), XIX, 6, pp. 374-75
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection, exh. cat., Maine State Museum (Augusta, ME, 1972), no. 6, repr.
  • John O'Brian, Degas to Matisse: the Maurice Wertheim Collection, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. and Fogg Art Museum (New York, NY and Cambridge, MA, 1988), no. 38, pp. 131, 133, repr. p. 133
  • Marjorie B. Cohn and Jean Sutherland Boggs, Degas at Harvard, exh. cat., Harvard University Art Museums/Yale University Press (Cambridge and New Haven, 2005), p. 60; repr. in b/w as fig. 48, p. 99; no. 13, p. 100
  • Elizabeth M. Rudy, "Researching the Wertheim Collection at the Harvard Art Museums", Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals (Summer 2014), Vol. 10, No. 3, pp. 301-6

Exhibition History

  • French Painting since 1870 lent by Maurice Wertheim, Class of 1906, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 06/01/1946 - 09/07/1946; National Gallery of Art, Washington, 07/01/1953 - 09/13/1953
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 07/01/1952 - 09/14/1952
  • French Paintings Since 1870 from the Maurice Wertheim Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 06/01/1953 - 09/30/1953
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, 06/15/1957 - 09/15/1957
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, 06/10/1958 - 08/31/1958
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection: Modern French Art--Monet to Picasso, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, 06/17/1960 - 09/04/1960
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection: Manet to Picasso, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, 06/13/1962 - 09/02/1962
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, 06/20/1963 - 09/01/1963
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection, Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, 06/24/1965 - 09/07/1965
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection, Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, 09/03/1968 - 09/22/1968
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection, Maine State Museum, Augusta, 06/01/1972 - 09/01/1972
  • Manet to Matisse: The Maurice Wertheim Collection, IBM Gallery of Science and Art, New York, 04/09/1985 - 05/25/1985
  • Degas at Harvard, Harvard University Art Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 08/01/2005 - 11/27/2005
  • Re-View: S427 Impressionist & Postimpressionist Art, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 08/02/2008 - 06/18/2011
  • 32Q: 1220 Wertheim, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project

Related Works

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu