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."
Demétre Chiparus
Chiparus created one of the most iconic bronzes in 1928 called "Danseuse au cerceau" or "Ring Dancer" inspired in the famous and prodigious dancer Zoula de Boncza of the Parisian "Folies Bergere", a first dancer of The Belgrado Royal Opera and a Mime dancer of "l'Opéra-Comique" in Paris. Later in life Zoula de Boncza, a descendant of Polish nobility and one of Loie Fuller best students, created a book published in 1961: the dance method "La Danse classique sans barre". The book was published with texts from Eugène de Rijac and Illustrations by Alexandre Berlant and Yvonne Breton.