Degas and the Little Dancer

“Degas” is a touching story about the famously disgruntled artist, Edgar Degas, and his work with ballerinas. A guard who stands watch at a museum display where Degas’ sculpture The Little Dancer stands on display tells the story behind the sculpture: Her name is Marie, she came from a poor

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family who could barely afford her ballet lessons, yet Marie had big dreams of being the most famous ballerina in the world. A decline in her father’s health meant a halt in ballet lessons for Marie, who, for extra money, agreed to model for artist Edgar Degas for various paintings and sculptures. Degas works relentlessly, and modeling for him is hard work; but in doing so, Marie learns the root of Degas’ unhappiness: he is losing his eyesight. Despite the fact, he creates in Marie’s image a beautiful sculpture of a dancer, which Degas considered his finest work. Two years after the sculpture, Marie is invited to an art exhibition, where The Little Dancer became a marvelous sensation. Through an old, angry, blinding artists’ work, Marie has become, in fact, the most famous ballerina in the world.

I absolutely adored this story. I am a longtime fan of artists during the Impressionist movement, and Degas is among my most favorites. As long as I have been a fan of Degas, I still learned so much from this little book. It would serve as an entertaining introduction to a study of famous artists; it offers a glimpse into Degas’ personal life and demeanor as well as his works of art. From this book, small children will almost instantly be able to recognize several well-known masterpieces as Degas: “the artist responsible for all the pretty ballerinas.”

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Degas and the Little Dancer is about how Degas found the ballerina in all of his paintings. A young ballerina was a model for a dancing school and Degas was the artist one day, and ever since that day she has posed for Degas in all his paintings.

I love this book because it gives readers a story behind the art. Degas' Little Dancer was just at NOMA and I had some older students perform at the opening. All of the younger students were encouraged to come so I read them this book to get them excited, it was perfect. Although this book is

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targeted towards a more female audience, it is great for the whole class because it covers the historical reference of art and an artist, and gives students the story behind it. Rarely do you see a work of art and know exactly what it is about.

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