 Homage to Degas from the bronze “La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans”
28”x 38” on TerraSkin paper 2015 I decided to paint La Petite Danseuse from an 1881 sculpture by Edgar Degas of a young student of the Paris Opera Ballet dance school which I saw at the National Gallery of Art in Washington. The exact relationship between Marie van Goethem and Edgar Degas is a matter of debate. It was common in 1880 for the "Petits Rats" of the Paris Opera to seek protectors from among the wealthy visitors at the back door of the opera. One critic, Paul Mantz, called her the "flower of precocious depravity," with a face "marked by the hateful promise of every vice" and "bearing the signs of a profoundly heinous character." I, on the other hand, have given her an air of determination and grace in her bronze stance. I have used acrylics, oil pastels, gloss medium/varnish and collaged her classical bell tutu using newspaper from a late 19th century copy of Le Petit Parisien that I acquired on my travels. J’espère que vous apprécierez cette peinture! Andrea Pottyondy, SCA |
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