Degas’ Petite danseuse de quatorze ans UPDATE: IT MADE £15.8 MILLION
Edgar Degas’ Petite danseuse de quatorze ans, comes up at Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art evening sale in London on June 24. One of only a handful of bronze casts remaining in private hands it is estimated at £10-15 million. Most are housed in major museum collections, including Tate, London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Philadelphia Museum of Art and Museé d’Orsay, Paris.
Helena Newman, Sotheby’s Co-Head of Impressionist & Modern Art Worldwide said:“Petite danseuse de quatorze ans is Edgar Degas’ most important and iconic sculpture. The artist’s ambitious and highly innovative work marks the pinnacle of his achievements as a sculptor, and its forthcoming sale represents a rare opportunity to acquire an icon of Impressionist art.”
The art historian Richard Kendall, co-curator of the Royal Academy’s exhibition Degas and the Ballet wrote: “Degas’ Little Dancer Aged Fourteen is among the three or four most celebrated sculptures of the modern age. Along with Rodin’s The Kiss and the same artist’s The Thinker, and perhaps Bartholdi’s Statue of Liberty, Degas’s statuette of a slender young ballet dancer has become recognisable to millions and admired throughout the world.”
