Degas Little Dancer of Fourteen Years Statue – Large Ballerina with Fabric Skirt (DE10)

La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans

This Degas Little Dancer statue is a faithful museum-style reproduction of La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans, Edgar Degas’ most famous sculpture. The figure portrays a young ballet student standing in a poised but unidealized stance. Her lifted chin, tense posture, and youthful proportions convey both discipline and vulnerability.

Degas once wrote, “There is love and there is work, and we have only one heart.” That tension between dedication and sacrifice is clearly present here. The dancer is not romanticized. She is shown as a working student, shaped by routine, effort, and expectation.

A Radical Sculpture in Its Time

Unlike traditional academic sculpture of the period, Degas presented a modern and unsettling vision. He chose realism over ideal beauty. When the sculpture was first exhibited in 1881, critics reacted harshly. Critics described the figure as ugly, unsettling, and too real. Degas had violated expectations by showing a dancer not as an idealized beauty, but as a disciplined adolescent shaped by training and ambition. Today, that realism of Degas Little Dancer statue is precisely what makes the work so important.

Degas believed that art was meant to challenge perception. He famously stated, “Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.” In this sense, the dancer’s realism was deliberate. Degas forced viewers to confront the physical reality behind the elegance of ballet.

Degas, Sculpture, and the Sense of Touch

As Degas’ eyesight declined after his fiftieth birthday, he turned increasingly to sculpture. Working in wax allowed him to rely on touch and memory. He modeled the Degas Little Dancer statue over more than two years, revising posture and balance repeatedly.

Degas once reflected on his creative process, saying, “It is very good to copy what one sees, but it is much better to draw what one now only sees in one’s memory.” This philosophy is evident in the dancer. She is not frozen in a theatrical pose. She feels observed, remembered, and shaped by experience.

Large Museum Replica with Fabric Details

This large Degas Little Dancer statue is produced as part of the Parastone Museum Collection. It includes a real netting skirt and hair ribbon, echoing Degas’ original mixed-media approach. These materials were revolutionary at the time and contributed to the sculpture’s controversial reception.

Degas embraced contradiction. As he put it, “I want to be illogical. I want to find the truth by being illogical.” By combining sculpture with real fabric, he blurred boundaries between art and life, realism and abstraction.

• Collection: Parastone Museum Collection
• Materials: Resin figure, fabric skirt and bow, wood base
• Height: 13.5 inches
• Base: 6 in W × 6 in D
• Weight: 2.3 lbs
• Part Number: DE10 (netting fabric skirt)

Degas and Lasting Influence

After the negative response to the dancer, Degas never exhibited sculpture publicly again. Yet history has reversed the verdict. The Fourteen Year Old Little Dancer sculpture is now regarded as one of the most important sculptures of the modern era.

Degas understood the long view. He once observed, “Anyone can be talented at twenty-five; what matters is having talent at fifty.” This sculpture stands as proof of that belief. It remains powerful, unsettling, and deeply human more than a century later.

Video: Degas and the Little Dancer