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."
Ludovic-Napoléon Lepic
Lepic’s fondness for dogs, evidenced by his many etchings, resulted in Degas’ final pastel of Lepic holding one in the Cleveland Museum of Art (1889). Earlier, he had included another dog in the amusing "Place de la Concorde", in which the elegantly dressed and cigar-smoking Lepic strides to the right, an umbrella under his arm, while his two daughters and the dog all face the other way. Earlier still, the daughters appeared on either side of their father in the intimate painting "Ludovic Lepic and His Daughters" (1871).