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."
Louis Deuchars
Louis Reid Deuchars (1870–1927) was a Scottish artist and sculptor.
Born in Comrie, Perthshire, Scotland, he attended Glasgow School of Art from 1887 to 1888. During his time in the city he was working as a stained-glass painter, possibly for a firm of decorators, such as J & W Guthrie. His series of lithographs, 'Picturesque Glasgow' was published in 'The Bailie' (1893–95). After sending a selection of his drawings to George Frederic Watts, 'England's Michelangelo', Deuchars secured work as an assistant to Watts at Compton, Surrey, England,where he worked on Watts' sculptures "Physical Energy" and "Lord Tennyson". However, his main employment there was as one of the four main workers assisting Mrs Watts, Mary Fraser Tytler, with her Watts Mortuary Chapel from 1895 to 1900. He helped her to run the classes attended by the local villagers, who modelled the decorative terra cotta tiles for the chapel. Then he went on in 1900 to do the same job at the Aldourie Pottery, Dores, her enterprise in the Highlands. It was near her childhood home of Aldourie Castle, Inverness-shire. During his association with the Wattses, he learned how to submit works to major art exhibitions & sold several.