Alannah Clark Ballet-Slippered and Pregnant

Alannah Clark

Ballet-Slippered and Pregnant: Little Ballet Dancer Representation of the Female Body in Degas’ ​

In the center of a white cube-like room stood the ugliest piece of the Getty Museum – and at ten years old, I had fallen deeply in love with it. Before me stood a dancer immortalized in bronze and completely covered in wax, save for a silk hair ribbon and gaudy grey tutu. She looked upwards and away from my fascinated gaze below her, where I tried to understand what was on her mind. At the time I didn’t know that the statue was more than just a simplistic portrayal of a young dancer or that it was actually representative of modernity, pseudoscience, social class conflicts, and anti-feminism. When the original rendition of this sculpture was revealed at the 1881 Impressionist Exhibition, it received a much less positive reception than my one encounter with its copy at the Getty. Critics praised it for its reality but condemned it for its ugliness, even comparing the dancer to an animal exhibited in a zoo. As the only sculpture Little Ballet Dancer of Fourteen Years exhibited before his death, Edgar Degas’ ​ ​ is today one of Thinker the most recognized statues in modern art history, standing defiantly alongside Rodin’s ​ as the most definitive sculptures conceived during the Impressionist period. In a modern context, Little Ballet Dancer ​ may now perhaps seem dated and irrelevant – in comparison to many newer and more bizarre art pieces, the statue seems relatively harmless and perhaps even beautiful – but

in fact, it continues to impress and confuse audiences through its defiance and very conception. It even still communicates with art today, as seen in artist Damien Hirst’s controversial statues Verity Virgin Mother Little Ballet Dancer. ​ ​ and ​ that recall the same stance and figure of Degas’ ​ Little Ballet Dancer of Fourteen Years Verity The dialogue betwee​n Degas’ ​ and Damien Hirst’s​ The Virgin Mother ​ and ​ is a discourse that transcends the boundaries of time in order to communicate how the body, particularly the female body, can be so manipulated and how the reality of that, depicted in a such an brutally honest physical form, makes spectators uncomfortable

Discomfort is a key characteristic of the piece, as it applies simultaneously to the statue itself and its audience and in turn highlights the relationship between the two. Degas was known for depicting movement, especially in his pastel paintings of backstage ballerinas or in sketches of women in isolation performing everyday tasks. What stuck out to so many art critics at the Little Ballet Dancer ​ 1881 exhibition was ​ ’s rigidity, created by that awkwardly forced pose held by Marie Van Goethem for hours in Degas’ studio. The artist’s association with movement in combination with the immobility of this statue contributes to the complexity and ingenuity of this piece that helps to distinguish it as one of more important and unique examples of modern sculpture. Little Ballet There was never a doubt that, despite its crudeness and poor initial reception, ​ Dancer of Fourteen Years ​ was a revolutionary work of art. It was purely unusual, which in a way made it thoroughly modern and therefore especially haunting. Degas’ use of mixed media (beeswax, cloth, human hair, metal) to create his statue allowed it to practically transcend the realm of art, which normally remained distant from the reality, by allowing to be both a work of art and an impression of reality. This made spectators question its existence: was it mean to look

Little Ballet real or was it meant to be art? Could the two ever be the same? These questions that ​ Dancer ​ provoke are what enable it to be defined as so revolutionary because it makes it modern. Modernity, as Charles Baudelaire originally defined it in his essay “The Painter of Modern Life”, is “the ephemeral, the fugitive, the contingent, the half of art whose other half is the eternal and Little Ballet the immutable” (13) that gives the artist their responsibility to reveal the truth. ​ Dancer ​ is indeed modern, showing us that her existence in reality is fleeting and subject to change, as seen with the eventual decay of the statue and her clothing, but also simultaneously timeless or at least capable of transcending time’s boundaries with her continued influence in art history today.

Little Ballet Dancer ​ What also adds to​ ’s modernity, and consequently its complexity, is its modern subject matter. The young ballet dancer, more commonly referred to as an “opera rat” was an especially modern subject, as it was a contemporary figure that reflected the popularity of leisure, entertainment, and progression that emerged in the late 1800s. Opera rats were typically poor and often relied on older male “protectors” in the theaters. Theoretically it is Degas’ impression of the young Marie van Goethem as a dirty, snotty, and vulnerable opera rat, Little Ballet Dancer ​ an impression made truth by a physical, artistic form is, that deems ​ as Impressionist and therefore modern. Despite showing obviously Impressionist features in his artwork, Degas preferred the term “realist” and we can see this clearly their impression of a subject was what made it real. With Degas’ interest in theater and art in its physical form, it seems perhaps unlikely that he had such an interest in the sciences and the discovery and representation of truth. However, Degas, along with a majority of Impressionists, was actually fascinated with the sciences, as we see in Little Ballet Dancer ​ through his physical depiction of the body that works upon scientific

theories of the time; consequently, in using science to create art, he reproduced the main concepts of those theories in a physical and artistic manifestation. Little Ballet Dancer, ​ In a study of Degas’ ​ Dr. Anthea Callen focuses primarily on Degas’ representation of the human body and the implied meaning of its unconventional physical features by linking the pseudoscientific theory of physiognomy to artwork. She first explains theories of physiognomy (which linked “inner moral character to outer physical appearance”) Little Ballet Dancer ​ that were popular at the time of ​ ’s conception. Around Degas’ emergence as an artist, a psychiatrist known as Morel proposed a link between criminality and evolutionary degeneration of physical features. Keeping this idea in mind, distinguished physician Petrus Camper used classical Greek sculpture as the basis for the “anatomical norm” as a way to confirm theories regarding human evolution. He then created a model to argue racial and social differences based on variations of cranial structure and developed the idea of a facial angle, where an imaginary line was drawn from ear to the upper jaw. According to him and his colleagues, “all that rise above that [angle] express the rules of art, of imitation of the antique; and all that drop below the line fall into the resemblance of monkeys. These two theories obtained enough popularity within the scientific community that “an acute facial angle, jutting jaw and prominent cheek bones became popularly associated with low social class, ignorance, and further, criminal bestiality” (13). This degeneration of physical facial features, which Callen refers to as “atavism” (scientifically defined as a mutation in the form of evolutionary Little Ballet Dancer ​ throwback), can clearly be seen in Degas’ ​ , particularly in specific details of her head: the dramatically-high forehead, flattened skull, “vulgarly upturned nose, protruding mouth” (14).

In addition to human physiognomy Degas also conscientiously studied animal physiognomy, notably that of primates. Therefore it makes sense that so many art critics compared the facial structure of his statue to a monkey’s. Not only was the resemblance meant to signify a devolution from human to primate form within the lower social classes, but it also implied an animalistic quality to the opera rat, and more broadly, to young poor females of Paris. Little Ballet Dancer ​ The fact that ​ was exhibited in a glass case, commonly referred to as cage or prison by observers, only further confirms this idea that she was meant to be viewed not as human being, but as representative of criminal and primitive qualities. The glass case puts her in Little Ballet Dancer ​ a position where she is fully observable to us but also untouchable. ​ makes us consciously aware of our position as spectators in that she perform for us and yet does so spitefully, almost as though she is refusing to participate passively in her display. Cullen states that these atavistic characteristics were “considered degenerate in modern woman, and responsible for an assertive masculine virility. Whereas virility in man was the cultural norm, in woman it was as sign of deviance from a female sexual passivity.” With this Little Ballet Dancer ​ interpretation in mind, he use of these features in ​ is then suggestive of a high sexual energy in such a young, prepubescent girl. This is what makes the statue is so provocative, not necessarily because it is promiscuous or explicit, but because of its subtle implications. If the

fourteen-year old dancer is meant to be seen as sexually charged and degenerative, it makes viewers not only question Degas’ personal relationship with Goethem, but also of men with younger women in general.

The relationship between Edgar Degas and Marie van Goethem is one of popular debate within the art history community; the discovery of nude studies of Marie van Goethem at Degas’ studio only furthered implications that there was something inappropriate occurring on some Little Ballet level. With the display of these semi-sexual qualities in an inappropriate host such as ​ Dancer ​ , Degas hinted at the truth about men taking advantage of young women in France. It was most likely the realization that contributed to the unanimous dislike for the piece at the 1881 Exhibition; it is therefore not entirely Marie herself who is ugly, but her struggle in unsuccessfully averting herself from the Male Gaze that is ugly and distasteful for the public to recognize, as she “both physically and psychologically, struggles for a measure of dignity” (National Gallery of Art). As George Riviere said of Degas’ work “...there is no truth without ugliness, ugliness alone expresses reality.”

Truth, however it may be defined, works as a main idea in Impressionist art and especially in Degas’ works depicting the realism of everyday life and common people. A more eloquent word for “truth,” verity, is not coincidentally the title of Damien Hirst statue that recalls Little Ballet Dancer. ​ certain details of Degas’ ​ An active member of Young British Artists in the Little Ballet Dancer ​ 1990s, Hirst recalls the same physical stance and facial features of ​ in his Verity The Virgin Mother ​ ​ work ​ and ​ . It is specifically the subtle hints to sexuality and femininity Little Ballet Dancer ​ in the positioning of female bodies that links Degas’ ​ to Hirst’s works here. Little Ballet Dancer ​ Like Degas with ​ , Hirst utilizes scientific images into his artwork, combining Verity ​ biology with art through the anatomical cross-sections of both of these works. ​ stands in a slightly-open T-position upon scattered legal books; in one arm stretched upward she holds a

sword; in the other, held behind her back, she holds onto dangling scales. These symbols suggest

Verity ​ that ​ is meant to be an allegorical figure for truth and justice – but for what? Could it be Verity Little Ballet Dancer ​ ​ that ​ seeks to reveal the same truth that​ hinted at, that young women are so distorted and manipulated at the hands of their observers? Is it possible that the scales

hidden behind her back represent how justice for this truth can only be obtained in secret or in ignorance?

Verity The Virgin Mother ​ ​ Like ​ , ​ also puzzles its observers through complicated physical Little Ballet Dance ​ attributes. Interestingly they both share one characteristic that Degas’ ​ r lacks Little Ballet Dancer ​ – pregnancy. Hirst revealed that he used the figure of ​ because, as he says, “It’s kind of naughty; she really shouldn’t be pregnant. I wanted a feeling of that. Anyone who is pregnant looks old enough, that’s the problem.” That Hirst would choose to recall the image of Little Ballet Dancer Little ​ the young​ to convey that “feeling” only says so much more about ​ Ballet Dancer ​ in that it so subtly addresses the inappropriate activity regarding the child and the Little Ballet Dancer of Fourteen Years even more inappropriate societal acceptance of it. While ​ is not actually physically pregnant, she is metaphorically pregnant with implicit meaning, which

perhaps Hirst saw when he recreated his more postmodern version of the already-modern work.

Little Ballet Dancer, Verity, and The Virgin Mother, Grouped together these three statues​ though made in different time periods, communicate with one another and to their audiences the “truth” about young women in the context of a critical society, that they can be visibly torn apart or put back together and still be considered human and realistic enough to display as well as condemn. They each represent a form of truth in revealing the treatment of young women as each statue depicts the simultaneous manipulation of the female body while the female spirit seeks freedom and dignity. Ten years after my initial encounter with bronze Marie, a poster of Little Ballet Dancer ​ hangs in my room; but, as always, no matter how intently I gaze and try to impose my own meaning onto her, she still faces away from me.

Works Referenced

Art Journal, ​ Barbour, Daphne. “Degas’ Little Dancer: Not Just a Study in the Nude.” ​ Vol. 54. No. 2, Conservation and Art History. College Art Association. (Summer, 1995) p. 28-35 The Painter of Modern Life. ​ Baudelaire, Charles. ​ 1863. Degas: Cullen, Anthea. “Anatomy and Physiognomy: Degas’ Little Dancer of Fourteen Years.”​ Images of Women. ​ Tate Gallery. Liverpool, England. 1989. p 10-17. Print The Agony and the D’Argenzio, Mirta. ‘Like People, Like Flies: Damien Hirst Interviewed’, ​ Ecstasy: Selected Works from 1989–2004 (Electa Napoli, 2004), p 216-218. Degas and the Little Dancer. ​ Kendall, Richard. ​ Yale University Press. 1998. Print. http://www.damienhirst.com/the-virgin-mother http://www.damienhirst.com/verity http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/Collection/highlights/highlight110292.html