Degas was a brilliant and successful painter. However, his work was not limited to painting. Drawing, and especially sculpting, figured largely in his professional and artistic career. Degas was inspired heavily by the ballet. The ballet was a huge fixture in 1800s Parisian culture, and Degas was quite the ballet connoisseur. He frequently and abundantly sketched from life the graceful, lithe movements of the ballerinas. He drew them practicing, dressing, and performing. Degas even drew the orchestra pit! He was passionate about two things: art, and ballet. He didn't even allow personal relationships, so that his art might thrive. From Degas' love for the ballet came one of his greatest works - La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans.

La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans, known more commonly by its English name "Little Dancer of Fourteen Years" was made in 1881. The model was a young dance girl named Marie van Goethem. It was unusual for its time because initially, it was sculpted in wax. Degas decided that wax was not permanent enough and set about having the figure cast in bronze. The figure depicts a young girl, in full ballet gear, in second ballet position. She gazes blankly upward and impatiently holds her hands behind her back. At the time of its exhibition, it received mixed reviews.

Degas included the sculpture in his showing at the Sixth Impressionist Exhibition of 1881, in Paris. Spectators seemed unimpressed and perplexed. Several critics found the sculpture to be aesthetically unpleasant and, in general, an artistic aberration. The sculpture looked clinical and cold, mostly because Degas chose to exhibit it in a glass, medical-like jar. The sculpture's face also received criticism for being "ugly."

The original wax figure was unusually accentuated. Degas chose to use real tulle fabric for the skirt, instead of sculpting it out of wax like the rest of the composition. The hair was a wig made from real human hair, held tightly by a hair ribbon from van Goethem, the sculpture's model. This unusual gift provoked speculation into the already suspicious relationship between artist and underaged muse. However, at the time, it was not uncommon for patrons of the arts to take a performer under their wing so as to facilitate the advancement of the arts in general.

After his death, the sculpture became a success. Degas' wife and daughter thought it necessary to make dozens of copies of the sculpture cast in bronze. The process was fraught and arduous, and the casts were not completed for several decades. Today, there are 69 copies of La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans that can be seen in museums and private collections worldwide. Recently, an early cast of the little dancer, whose skeleton is fashioned from paintbrushes, fetched over thirteen million dollars at auction.

Despite its initial ambiguous success, La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans is now regarded as a classic and well-liked piece of 19th century French art. The artist himself may have lived a bizarre and isolated existence, but his spirit lives on in the form of his beautiful sculptures, paintings, and drawings