Edgar Degas

Galerie Beyeler, Basel (by 1953)
Galerie Georges Moos, Paris
M. Knoedler & Co., New York (1955)
Mrs. Allen Manus, Ontario (May 1956)
Private collection, New Jersey
Richard L. Feigen & Co., New York (11 November 1985)
Robert T. Carmel, New York (1985)
Sale: Christie's New York, 13 November 1996, lot 28
Ezra & Cecile Zilkha, New York (acquired at the above sale)

J. Rewald, Degas, Works in Sculpture, A Complete Catalogue, New York, 1944, pp. 27 & 130, no. LXVI (another cast illustrated)
L. Browse, Degas Dancers, Boston, 1949, no. 154 (another cast illustrated)
J. Rewald & L. Von Matt, Degas Sculpture, The Complete Works, Zurich, 1956, pl.46, no. XLVII (another cast illustrated)
P. Cabanne, Edgar Degas, Paris, 1959, p. 61 (another cast illustrated)
F. Russoli & F. Minervino, L'opera completa di Degas, Milan, 1970, p. 141, no. S16 (titled Danzatrice spagnola, another cast illustrated)
C. W. Millard, The Sculpture of Edgar Degas, Princeton, 1976, no. 69 (another cast illustrated)
J. & M. Guillaud, Degas, Form and Space, Paris, 1984, no. 180 (titled Spanish Dance, another cast illustrated)
R. Gordon & A. Forge, Degas, New York, 1988, pp. 209 & 278 (another cast illustrated)
J. Rewald, Degas's Complete Sculpture, Catalogue raisonné, San Francisco, 1990, pp. 170-71, no. LXVI (titled Spanish Dance, wax version and another cast illustrated)
A. Pingeot, Degas Sculptures, Paris, 1991, p. 160, no. 16 (another cast illustrated)
S. Campbell, "Degas, The Sculptures, A Catalogue Raisonné," in Apollo, vol. CXLII, no. 402, August, 1995, pp. 20-21, no. 20 (titled Spanish dance, another cast illustrated)
J. S. Czestochowski & A. Pingeot, Degas Sculptures, Catalogue raisonné of the Bronzes, Memphis, 2002, pp. 160-61, no. 20 (titled Spanish Dance, another cast illustrated)
S. Campbell, R. Kendall, D. Barbour & S. Sturman, Degas in the Norton Simon Museum, vol.II, Pasadena, 2009, pp. 298-99 & 300, no. 51 (titled Spanish dance, another cast illustrated)
S. G. Lindsay, D. S. Barbour & S. G. Sturman, Edgar Degas Sculpture, Washington DC, 2010, pp. 156-161 & 369, no. 20 (titled Spanish Dance, wax version illustrated)

Paris, Galerie A. A. Hébrard, Exposition des sculptures de Degas, 1921, no. 16
New York, The Grolier Club, Prints, Drawings and Bronzes by Degas, 1922, no. 73
Basel, Galerie Beyeler, Tableaux français, 1953, no. 33 (illustrated)

The fervent exploration of movement is a defining feature of the oeuvre of Edgar Degas, and nowhere is his exceptional aptitude for representing the human form in motion more evident than in his sculptures. John Rewald wrote: "It was in his passionate search for movement that all the statuettes of dancers doing arabesques, bowing, rubbing their knees, putting their stockings on, etc., and of women arranging their hair, stretching, rubbing their neck and so on were created. All these women are caught in poses which represent one single instant, in an arrested movement which is pregnant with the movement just completed and the one about to follow. To use Baudelaire's words, Degas 'loved the human body as a material harmony, as a beautiful architecture with the addition of movement'" (J. Rewald, op. cit., 1990, p. 23).

Discussing the pose of the dancer in the present work, Suzanne Glover Lindsay wrote: "This figure’s 'Spanish' pose is not easily identified with dance movements or poses in the Spanish repertory. It suggests a hybrid of French ballet and Spanish dance, with a Spanish 'feel.' The arm position resembles forms in both dance types, but the complex posture departs from the ones of classical dance... The open thumbs and curled fingers evoked by the well-articulated, fragmentary hands suggest they hold castanets... By Degas’ time, both dance types had been evolving for decades, especially in Paris, where he probably saw Spanish dance before travelling to Spain in 1889. His views of the latter probably derived from French adaptations, often inspired by Spanish troupes that began touring Europe in the 1830s to great applause, motivating European classical dancers and choreographers to appropriate elements" (S. Lindsay in S. Lindsay, D. Barbour & S. Sturman, op. cit., pp. 159-160).