Dancer fastening the shoulder strap of her bodice – Edgar Degas, bronze cas

A superb bronze cast of Edgar Degas’ iconic dancer, Danseuse agrafant l’épaulette de son corsage presents a moment of disarming intimacy: a young ballerina absorbed in adjusting the shoulder strap of her costume. Her raised arms and elegant pose reveal the sculptor’s fascination with fleeting, unguarded gestures—rendered here with the expressive surface modeling that defines Degas’ mature sculptural language.
The work was cast in 1998 by the prestigious Valsuani Foundry in Paris using the traditional lost-wax method (cire perdue). It bears Degas’ signature, the foundry stamp, and is numbered IV/IX, indicating it is part of a posthumous edition of 29 bronzes: 20 marked A to T and 9 numbered from I/IX to IX/IX. A certificate from the Comité Degas confirms its authenticity.
Degas is universally celebrated for his masterful depictions of the ballet world—not only in pastel and oil, but also in sculpture, where he explored the same themes with remarkable tactile sensitivity. His ballerinas are not idealized icons, but real women captured in private, natural movements, as seen here in the graceful twist of the torso and the subtle play of musculature beneath the skin.
This work belongs to the group of 74 original wax sculptures discovered in Degas’ studio after his death in 1917. Many of these were posthumously cast to preserve the artist’s legacy, with the Valsuani editions being among the most respected and sought-after by collectors and institutions alike.
Like his dynamic equestrian bronze Horse Clearing an Obstacle, this sculpture reflects Degas’ ability to distill motion and gesture into bronze with extraordinary vitality. Pieces like this rarely come to market—making it a unique opportunity to acquire a museum-quality work by one of the great masters of Impressionist sculpture.