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."
Alexandre Falguière
Falguière's first bronze statue of importance was "Le Vainqueur au Combat de Coqs (Victor of the Cockfight)" (1864), and "Tarcisius the Christian Boy-Martyr" followed in 1867; both were exhibited in the Luxembourg Museum and are now in the Musée d'Orsay. His more important monuments are those to Admiral Courbet (1890) at Abbeville and the famous Joan of Arc. Other works include "Eve" (1880), "Diana" (1882 and 1891), "Woman and Peacock" (a. k. a. "Juno and The Peacock"), and "The Poet", astride his Pegasus spreading wings for flight. He sculpted "The Dancer", based on Cléo de Mérode which today is also in the Musée d'Orsay.
In 1870 he helped create the snow sculpture, "La statue de la Résistance".