The Schoolgirl

Edgar Degas|A. A. Hébrard

modeled ca. 1879–81, cast 1956 · Bronze, black marble base · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Degas's sculpture stands quite outside the mainstream of nineteenth-century French sculpture. He was never interested in creating public monuments, neither did he ever display his sculpture publicly, with the exception of The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer. Instead, it remained a private medium, akin to sketches or drawings, in which he limited himself largely to certain sets of subjects within which he explored the problems that fascinated him. The human figures are often repetitions of the same subject, each displaying subtle variaitons in composition or in the dynamics of movement or tension within the figure.

Artist

Edgar Degas|A. A. Hébrard

Date

modeled ca. 1879–81, cast 1956

Medium

Bronze, black marble base

Culture

French

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Claus von Bülow, 1977