Bronze
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Art Fund
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/edgar-degas-988" aria-label="More by Edgar Degas" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Edgar Degas</a>
Grande Arabesque
Presented by the Art Fund 1951
actions: postures and motions
adults
arm / arms raised
arts and entertainment
bending forward
dancer
female
nudes
people
woman
work and occupations
<p>As with other similar bronzes displayed here, Degas has chosen to depict this dancer in a pose which implies movement. He had a sound knowledge of classical ballet and its different positions. This work depicts the pose known as the 'grande arabesque'. A number of other bronzes on this theme show a dancer in alternative arabesque positions.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
sculpture bronze
31 March 2006 – 31 October 2006
2006-10-31
31 March 2006 – 31 October 2006
2006-10-31
2006-03-31
Burghley House (Stamford, UK)
2006-03-31
2006 Season
Loan-out
19 March 2020 – 25 October 2020
2020-10-25
19 March 2020 – 25 October 2020
2020-10-25
2020-03-19
Städelsches Kunstinstitut und Städtische Galerie (Frankfurt, Germany)
http://www.staedelmuseum.de
2020-03-19
Impressionism: Painting and Sculpture in Dialogue
Loan-out
Grande Arabesque
object: 400 × 508 × 343 mm
Presented by the <a href="/search?gid=999999968" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Art Fund</a> 1951
<p>As with other similar <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/m/metal" title="Glossary definition for 'Metal'"><span>bronzes</span></a> displayed here,  Degas has chosen to depict this dancer in a pose  which implies movement. He had a sound knowledge  of <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/classicism" title="Glossary definition for 'Classicism'"><span>classical</span></a> ballet and its different  positions. This work depicts the pose known  as the 'grande arabesque'. A number of other  bronzes on this theme show a dancer in alternative  arabesque positions.</p>
Display caption
2004-08-18T00:00:00
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DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>Edgar Degas</b><span> 1834-1917 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/degas-grande-arabesque-n05917" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05917</span></a> </span><b>Grande Arabesque</b><span>
</span><i>c</i><span>.1885-90 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>Stamped 'Degas', '16/H' and founder's stamp 'CIRE | PERDUE | A.A. HÉBRARD' on base</span>
<br/><span>Bronze, 16 3/8 x 21 1/4 x 11 (41.5 x 54 x 28)</span>
<br/><span>Presented by the National Art-Collections Fund 1951</span>
<br/><i>Prov:</i><span>
NACF (purchased from the founder A.A. Hébrard, Paris, through Leicester Galleries, London, 1923)</span>
<br/><i>Exh:</i><span>
</span><i>Works in Sculpture of Edgar Degas</i><span>, Leicester Galleries, London, February-March 1923 (7) as 'Grande Arabesque, troisième temps (</span><i>Deuxième état</i><span>)'; lent by the NACF to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1923-6; </span><i>Opening Exhibition of the Modern Foreign Gallery</i><span>, Tate Gallery, June-October 1926 (works not numbered); on loan to the Tate Gallery from 1926 until presented</span>
<br/><i>Lit:</i><span>
Walter Sickert, 'Degas' in </span><i>Burlington Magazine</i><span>, XXXI, 1917, p.185; Walter Sickert, 'The Sculptor of Movement' in exh. catalogue </span><i>Works in Sculpture of Edgar Degas</i><span>, Leicester Galleries, London, February-March 1923, p.6; Germain Bazin, 'Degas Sculpteur' in </span><i>L'Amour de l'Art</i><span>, XII, July 1931, pp.293, 301; Georges Jeanniot, 'Souvenirs sur Degas' in </span><i>Revue Universelle</i><span>, LV, 1933, p.300; John Rewald, </span><i>Degas: Works in Sculpture</i><span> (New York 1944), No.XL, p.24, repr. pl.95 (assigned to the period 1882-95); Lillian Browse, </span><i>Degas Dancers</i><span> (London 1949), p.388, repr. pl.155 as 'Danseuse Nue en Grande Arabesque', </span><i>c</i><span>.1882-6; John Rewald, </span><i>Degas: Sculpture</i><span> (London 1957), No.XL, p.149, repr. pl.33; Michèle Beaulieu, 'Les Sculptures de Degas: Essai de Chronologie' in </span><i>Revue du Louvre</i><span>, XIX, No.6, 1969, pp.374-5; Charles W. Millard, </span><i>The Sculpture of Edgar Degas</i><span> (Princeton 1976), pp.37n, 105-6, wax repr. pl.91 (dated between 1885 and 1890) </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>Degas made two further <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/sculpture" title="Glossary definition for 'Sculpture'"><span>sculptures</span></a> in the attitude of the present work (Rewald Nos.XXXIX, XLI), as well as five others showing the arabesque in different positions: one with both feet on the ground (No.XXXV) and four with the body inclined slightly above the horizontal (Nos.XXXVI-XXXVIII, XLII). It has been pointed out by Bazin and others that, arranged in sequence, these represent three successive phases of the same movement; nevertheless it is likely that Degas, who had an intimate knowledge of the ballet, meant to distinguish between the positions known respectively as 'Grande Arabesque' (cf. this work), 'Arabesque sur la Terre' and 'Arabesque'. The date of the present work is unknown, but from its smooth finish it would appear to be a fairly early piece. Sickert recalls that he saw the wax of the related 'Grande Arabesque, Second Time' (No.XXXVI) in Degas' studio in the Rue Victor Massé in the early 1890s. 'He turned the statuette round slowly to show me the successive silhouettes thrown on a white sheet by the light of a candle'. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>According to Arthur Beale of the Fogg Museum's conservation laboratory, Degas seems to have modelled this sculpture entirely in plastilene and not in greenish-brown wax, as has sometimes been stated. (Millard, op.cit., p.37n.). </span>
<br/></p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/><span>Ronald Alley, </span><i>Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists</i><span>, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, pp.151-2, reproduced p.151</span>
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-15T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions adults arm / arms raised arts and entertainment bending forward dancer female nudes people woman work and occupations