(#gifted @les.fugitives.press) Little Dancer Aged Fourteen is an interesting deep-dive into the seedy side of ballet, opera and art at the end of the 19th century. The focus of Camille Laurens book is Marie van Goethem, a dancer and artist's model who posed for Edgar Degas's sculpture Little Dancer Aged Fourteen. The statue is famous, although initially received harsh criticism, but how many people are aware of Marie's history?

.

The life of a young girl, living in poverty and forced to sell their bodies in various ways by desperate mothers, is not of much worth to historians. The allure of the opera was real, but the behind the glittering facade was a grim underbelly: terrible wages, brutal hours, male 'protectors' who could vouch for precarious jobs at the theatre on behalf of their favourites in exchange for certain favours. The law was not on their side, as primary education was not yet compulsory for girls in the opera, and 13 was the age of so-called sexual maturity. 1880's Paris was not a good time to be a young girl and poor.

.

Marie, not particularly passionate about ballet, moved onto modelling for artists instead, as it was better pay and not as exhausting. She found herself in the studio of Edgar Degas, as the painter turned to sculpture when his eyes began to fail. I'm not particularly interested in Degas, it was Marie and the micro-history of one regular person that fascinated me.

.

I also appreciated being made to consider things I don't usually consider. For example, Degas used wax for his statue, believed part of beauty resided in its ephemerality, and did not want to upgrade his wax sculpture to a more durable material. But after his death, his descendants had 22 bronze casts made and sold them all over the world. Did they have the right to go against the artist's wishes like that?

.

I thought the ending got off track, with Laurens moving more into memoir territory, but overall it was an interesting glimpse into French society at the time, and the life of one young girl whose likeness became world famous.