Rendering Movement in Wax and Wires: Edgar Degas as a Modeler

• Lecture

DATE:

Saturday, February 3, 2018

TIME:

4:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Speaker:

Line Clausen Pedersen, Curator, Head of Modern Department, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen

"One should follow the model like a fly running around on a sheet of paper."

So remarked Degas to a friend about capturing the movement of a model. He dedicated his career to exploring the same motifs, many of them based on complicated gestures and evocations of movement. Degas studied live models in his studio and created numerous small sculptures in wax that expanded on familiar poses in a range of new iterations. Surprisingly complex in their construction, these statuettes offer fascinating insights into the artist’s process as he carefully formed wax and clay over handmade wire armatures. After the artist’s death in 1917, 73 of the best-preserved sculptures were selected for casting, and the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek is one of the few museums with a complete set of these bronzes. Line Clausen Pedersen delves into Degas’s process of modeling within the context of her research on the Glyptotek’s collection and its exhibition Degas’s Method.