Norton Simon Museum Finds a Long-Sought Degas Bronze

Edgar Degas, Arabesque over the right leg, left arm in front, modeled mid- to late-1880s, cast 1919–1921

The Norton Simon Museum has acquired a Degas bronze that fills a gap in its near-complete collection of such works. Known as Arabesque over the right leg, left arm in front, it goes on view today. 

In 1977 Norton Simon bought 69 bronze modèles cast painstakingly from the fragile wax and clay sculptures found in Degas' studio after his death. Most of the "Degas bronzes" in museums had been cast from these modèles. That put the Simon bronzes one generation closer to the artist's hand. (Most of Degas' original waxes were acquired by Paul Mellon and donated to the National Gallery of Art.) 

Three of the modèles were missing from the group Simon purchased. One of them—Horse trotting, the feet not touching the ground—was discovered at the foundry in 1979. Simon quickly bought it.

In 2001, after Simon's death, the Norton Simon Art Foundation committed funds to buy serial (non-modèle) casts of the two missing bronzes, if and when suitable examples turned up. Arabesque over the right leg… came on the market in late 2024, allowing its purchase as a 50th birthday gift to the museum.

All Degas bronzes are posthumous, and scholars debate whether the artist ever intended his wax sculptures to be cast in bronze. Arguably Arabesque over the right leg… hints that Degas was thinking of a medium with more tensile strength. The wax version is barely able to support the weight of its cantilevered limbs and must be shown with a distracting armature. 

Edgar Degas, Arabesque over the right leg, left arm in front (wax), about 1885–1890. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC