Little Dancer of Fourteen Years
The "Little Dancer" wax sculpture we see today is a reworked version of the original sculpture that was shown in 1881. After seeing the wax sculpture in Degas’ living quarters in April 1903, the New York collector Louisine Havemeyer expressed interest in buying the wax. After proposing a bronze or cast wax of the sculpture, which Mrs. Havemeyer refused, Degas took his wax figure upstairs to his working studio and told Vollard he was reworking the sculpture for Havemeyer for 40,000 francs. Degas never sold the sculpture to Mrs. Havemeyer. After Degas died, it was found in a corner of his studio. Paul Lefond, Degas’ biographer, described the "Little Dancer" wax after Degas’ death as "nothing but a ruin;" and Mary Cassatt telegraphed Mrs. Havemeyer "Statue Bad Condition." However, the wax sculpture we know today is not a ruin. It is Degas' reworked second version of his wax figure. At some point before Degas extensively reworked his sculpture, he allowed a plaster to be cast from the wax figure. This recently re-discovered plaster records the "Little Dancer"’s original pose, bodice, and hairdo. The plaster is now in a private collection in the United States.
Raymond Delamarre
In 1925 and in collaboration with the architect Michel Roux Spitz, he took part in the competition to secure the work on the proposed "Monument à la Défense du canal de Suez" to be erected in Ismaîlia, a work of huge proportions and a most prestigious project. Also working with Roux-Spitz, he exhibited a sculptural composition for a water fountain at the Exposition des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, the bas-reliefs "Nessus et Dejanire" and "Persée et Andromède" cast in bronze in 1935, two tympani for the decorator Paul Follot, a bronze entitled "David" and a work in plaster entitled "Femme au bélier". Between 1926 and 1927, Delamarre worked on the "Mowgli" ronde-bosse. He also executed a bas-relief of Mowgli in plaster measuring 2 metres by 2 metres.