Three Studies of a Dancer in Fourth Position (1879/80): Artwork and History

Three Studies of a Dancer in Fourth Position (1879/80) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Edgar Degas French, 1834-1917.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

Made in preparation for the sculpture Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, this remarkable drawing depicts the model Marie van Goethem from three different perspectives: left profile, right profile, and facing the viewer. Edgar Degas wanted to understand the figure in the round, in two dimensions, before he approached the sculpture in three dimensions.

Object facts

• Title: Three Studies of a Dancer in Fourth Position
• Date: 1879/80
• Artist attribution: Edgar Degas French, 1834-1917
• Place of origin: France
• Medium: Charcoal and pastel with stumping, and touches of brush and black wash, on grayish-tan laid paper with blue fibers, laid down on gray wove paper
• Dimensions: 48 × 61.6 cm (18 15/16 × 24 5/16 in.)
• Type: Drawing and Watercolor
• Department: Prints and Drawings
• Reference number: 1962.703

Collection credit

Bequest of Adele R. Levy

View the original

Explore the artwork in the Art Institute's collection, including its image and the museum's current catalogue details.

The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.