Edgar Degas: Dancer in the Role of Harlequin Sculpture from The Met Museum

Our splendid reproduction celebrates a direct lineage to the work of Edgar Degas (French, 1834-1917). It was carefully made from a 1920 bronze in The Met collection, which itself was cast from an original figure modeled about 1884-85 by Degas’s own hand. This model was among 150 small-scale sculptures of wax, clay, and plastiline found in the artist’s studio after his death. Degas created these figures as a private means of exploring subjects that fascinated him-dancers, bathers, racehorses-while investigating the movement of the body, as seen in this lithe ballet dancer. Authorized by the sculptor’s heirs, a posthumous series of bronze editions was cast in Paris from 72 of these small figures, completed before May 1921. Of the first “A” edition, all but two are in The Met, which houses one of the world’s most comprehensive collections of Degas’s work.