Dancer in the “four forward” position standing on her left foot

Mediums: bronze.
Location: The Museum d’Orsay, Paris (France).

The artist began to create small sculptures in the late 1860s; as his eyesight worsened, he devoted more and more time to this genre. Moreover, the themes were the same as those he used for his paintings – dancers and bathers, jumping jockeys. Being incredibly observant, the master caught natural movements, poses and gestures literally on the move, and then, based on the sketches and from memory, transferred them to canvases and embodied in small sculptures. He mostly sketched ballerinas at rehearsals; not particularly paying attention to the face or body parts, he tried to convey an unexpected pose and expressive movement. The original sculpture is presented at the Washington National Gallery.