Edgar Degas
Degas's only showing of sculpture during his life took place in 1881 when he exhibited "The Little Dancer of Fourteen Years". A nearly life-size wax figure with real hair and dressed in a cloth tutu, it provoked a strong reaction from critics, most of whom found its realism extraordinary but denounced the dancer as ugly. In a review, J.-K. Huysmans wrote: "The terrible reality of this statuette evidently produces uneasiness in the spectators; all their notions about sculpture, about those cold inanimate whitenesses ... are here overturned. The fact is that with his first attempt Monsieur Degas has revolutionized the traditions of sculpture as he has long since shaken the conventions of painting."
Singer with A Glove
Singer with A Glove by Edgar Degas, originally titled Chanteuse de Café, la chanteuse au gant, is a pastel drawing on canvas 53.2 x 41 cm from the year 1878. Degas himself was a French artist famous for not only pastels, but his paintings, sculptures, prints, and charcoal drawings as well. This pastel is part of a series of works that have cafe-concert singers as their subject. Degas was a habitué of those places, especially the Cafe des Ambassadeurs, and he uses them as the settings for many of his best works. He is drawn to the dramatic poses of performers and singers, especially when presented, as here, from very close up.