拍品专文
Degas once remarked to the critic François Thiébault-Sisson that, in his desire 'to achieve exactitude so perfect in the representation of animals that a feeling of life is conveyed, one had to go into three dimensions' (quoted in R. Kendall, exh. cat., Degas: beyond Impressionism, London, 1996, p. 255). Degas would model wax figures of horses or dancers almost as an extension of his drawings, manipulating the highly pliable wax over improvised armatures as he explored movement which he would subsequently translate into his paintings of racing scenes or ballerinas. Anne Dumas has noted: 'Degas was obsessed, above all, with the figure, with movement and pose. Drawing for him was a way of discovering and capturing motion and posture. His sculpture can perhaps be seen as an extension to drawing, a means by which Degas could work through his ideas in a direct, tactile and three-dimensional form, and a fresh arena in which to work out problems. Like his printmaking, sculpture was a particularly experimental form' (J.S. Czestochowski & A. Pingeot, Degas Sculpture: A Catalogue Raisonn of the Bronzes, Memphis, 2003, p. 40). Degas was so absorbed by these equine figures that in 1888 he chose them over his series of pastel bathers, stating, 'I haven't yet done enough horses. The women must wait in their tubs' (quoted in ibid., p.15).