Art Historian Gregory Hedberg Will Speak About His Discovery of Degas's 'Little Dancer' And How It Influenced Modern Art

When French lawyer Alexander Cornot decided that he wanted to pursue a career as an art dealer in 2003, he turned to eminent art historian Gregory Hedberg for advice.

Mr. Hedberg suggested that Mr. Cornot return to Paris and visit unknown art galleries and small antiques shops under the notion that many important works have been found while searching in unexplored places. After months of exchanging emails with Mr. Cornot and viewing photographs of his finds, a particular message caught Mr. Hedberg’s attention. The work was a plaster impression of the wax sculpture “Little Dancer of Fourteen Years,” a known piece from the late French artist Edgar Degas, that was discovered in the now-defunct Valsuani foundry outside Paris.

Of course, Mr. Hedberg, now senior consultant of European art at Hirschl & Adler Galleries in Manhattan, was familiar with Degas’s “Little Dancer”—there have been numerous bronzes cast by the Hébrard foundry in Paris that have sold for millions of dollars—but what struck Mr. Hedberg as odd was that this plaster differed in many ways from the Hébrard bronzes. This led Mr. Hedberg to believe that the Hébrard bronzes were not cast from the original 1881 plaster impression of the sculpture, but instead created from Degas’s later reworked version of the dancer from around 1903. In 2004, Mr. Hedberg traveled to Paris to examine the Valsuani plaster and the Hébrard bronze that was on display at the Musée d'Orsay.

“It was a big discovery,” Mr. Hedberg reflected. “People knew about the plaster and knew about these bronzes, but nobody realized that this records an earlier version of Degas’s wax, which was far more important.”

Mr. Hedberg’s book, “Degas’ Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen: The Earlier Version That Helped Spark the Birth of Modern Art,” analyzes the critical differences between Degas’ original and reworked version of the dancer, and why these differences have played a role in how art enthusiasts have responded to the sculpture.

It was not uncommon for Degas to rework his art; he was known to constantly alter his paintings.

“A lot of it is the same,” Mr. Hedberg noted. “But the posture is different, the tooling on the back of the reworked wax is not as good as the original, the hair-do is different.” Although seemingly unimportant, all of these small changes add up to create a very different sculpture from the 1881 version that held such prestige in modern art.

In the Valsuani plaster, the ballerina’s legs are more muscular than the reworked version, which was a much more realistic interpretation of a trained dancer. The most striking difference between the versions is the ballerina’s stance; in the original, she stands with her weight distributed equally on both feet in a pose that was very radical at the time, as this type of stance was typically reserved for royalty. In the later version, the ballerina stands with her weight resting on her left leg, pushing her hips into a contrapposto position that was not noted as special or revolutionary, according to Mr. Hedberg.

Mr. Hedberg noted that the ballerina was an opera rat—a young dancer held in low esteem—who would never be seen standing in a way that royalty would. “What was so interesting about the pose is that he’s painting an opera rat in this big scale that sort of elevated her. He elevates a lowly opera rat, who half the time were prostitutes, and gives her this pose for a king or a queen.” This technique inspired many artists in Paris at the time.

Mr. Hedberg said finding the Valsuani plaster was almost too good to be true. “The evidence and details just add up. We all know that it was shown in 1881, but we thought it was the version that was seen today. It was quite a discovery.”

Gregory Hedberg will speak about his analysis of Degas’s “Little Dancer” and how it influenced modern art at the Southampton Historical Museum’s Rogers Mansion in Southampton Village on Saturday, July 1, at 5 p.m. Admission to the lecture is free and a reception will follow. For reservations, call 631-283-2494 or email lcollins@southamptonhistoricalmuseum.org