Topline
Considered one of Edgar Degas’ iconic “Little Dancer” sculptures broke the artist’s public sale document Thursday when it bought for $41.6 million from the gathering of the late Anne Bass, the previous spouse of an oil billionaire who championed American ballet.
This solid of the “Little Dancer” sculpture is the costliest piece by the French artist to ever … [+]
Christie’s
Key Details
“La Petite Danseuse de quatorze ans,” or “Little Dancer of fourteen years,” is a bronze solid of the one sculpture that Degas ever exhibited in his lifetime, primarily based on a younger ballerina named Marie van Goethem who was learning ballet in Paris.
Thursday’s profitable bid for the sculpture—which bought at Christie’s—surpassed the earlier document worth for a Degas work at public sale, which was final set in 2015 when one other “Little Dancer” bronze bought for $24.8 million.
The record-breaking bronze final belonged to Bass, a longtime patron of the New York Metropolis Ballet and the onetime spouse of Texas oil billionaire Sid Bass, who’s value $3.5 billion based on Forbes’ real-time wealth tracker.
This bronze was commissioned in August 1927 from the distinguished Hébrard foundry, which Degas’ household tapped after the artist’s loss of life to solid the sculptures he left behind (although the Hébrard casts had been created after Degas’ 1917 loss of life, they’re extensively considered within the artwork world as genuine items from the artist).
Bass acquired the sculpture from Sandra Payson, the daughter of industrialist Charles Shipman Payson and his spouse, Joan Whitney Payson, a member of the outstanding Whitney household and the primary lady to personal a major-league baseball workforce that she didn’t inherit (Bass’ longtime Fifth Avenue condo in New York was additionally previously occupied by the Paysons, Christie’s stated).
Tangent
The unique wax “Little Dancer” sculpture featured actual hair, was wearing a fabric tutu and brought on a scene in 1881 when Degas first exhibited it in Paris, the place critics known as it “fairly merely hideous” and a “flower of precocious depravity,” a reference to indisputable fact that ballet dancers in that period usually worked as prostitutes. Fewer than 600 of the bronze “Little Dancer” sculptures had been created earlier than Hébrard closed in 1937 and the household approved a distinct foundry, making the casts from that run coveted on the artwork market. The unique sculpture, which Degas crafted round 1880, is a part of the gathering on the Nationwide Gallery of Artwork in Washington, D.C.
Key Background
Bass died at age 78 of ovarian most cancers final 12 months. When she separated from Sid Bass in a extremely publicized 1988 divorce, she walked away with a settlement believed to be between $200 million and $500 million, reportedly the most important in Texas historical past on the time. Together with ballet, Bass was enthusiastic about artwork and bought one of many “most vital American collections” to hit the market in a long time, Christie’s public sale home stated when it introduced the public sale of her art work in March. Together with the sculpture, work by Degas, Mark Rothko and Claude Monet fetched hundreds of thousands Thursday.
Additional Studying
Arts Philanthropist Anne Bass’ $250 Million Assortment Of Work And Statues Heads To Public sale (Forbes)
