Little Dancer of Fourteen Years
The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer (French: "La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans") is a sculpture begun c. 1880 by Edgar Degas of a young student of the Paris Opera Ballet dance school, a Belgian named Marie van Goethem.
Edgar Degas
In many subsequent paintings dancers were shown backstage or in rehearsal, emphasizing their status as professionals doing a job. From 1870 Degas increasingly painted ballet subjects, partly because they sold well and provided him with needed income after his brother's debts had left the family bankrupt. Degas began to paint café life as well, in works such as "L'Absinthe" and "Singer with a Glove". His paintings often hinted at narrative content in a way that was highly ambiguous; for example, "Interior" (which has also been called "The Rape") has presented a conundrum to art historians in search of a literary source—"Thérèse Raquin" has been suggested—but it may be a depiction of prostitution.