5 February 2008

Why would learning that one of our catalogue entries is wrong be a good thing?

The Museum of Missing History strives to present the latest and most accurate information.  Learning that something we have published is inaccurate takes us closer to our goal.  And in this case we may have made a connection that will do more than that.

Until this week our catalogue included an entry about the bronzes cast from Edgar Degas’ sculpture Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen.  The entry, based on a museum catalogue, stated that of the 29 bronze casts made, 20 were lettered A through T and that some of the lettered casts were unlocated. 

Last week the museum received an email from a woman in England who had been a stewardess with BOAC in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.  She told us that she remembered seeing some Degas works, including Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen, in a hotel in Beirut where her aircrew sometimes stayed. 

When the museum receives information like this we follow it up with an acknowledged expert before we publish it.  In this case we called the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California, which has a collection of Degas bronzes, and this is what we learned:

Although the known lettered castings do not form a complete sequence it is believed that this was due to errors at the foundry where the bronzes were made.  In some instances, two casts were given the same letter.  In other instances, bronzes were left without their letter stamp and these were assumed by some to represent the ‘missing’ pieces.  Current scholarship has located seventeen lettered and twelve unlettered casts of Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen.

This information, the latest scholarly understanding on the subject, meant that our catalogue entry was wrong and needed to be removed.  Bad news, right?  Yes, but…

We also learned that none of the known bronzes is currently thought to have a history of ownership in Beirut.  So what did our stewardess friend see there?  Was she completely mistaken or did she just give us a clue to the history of one of the known bronzes, or even to the existence of an as yet unknown example?

Whatever the case may be, a connection has been made.  This information which resided in the memory of a woman in England has now been shared with a Degas scholar and may one day lead to a new discovery.  This is how the Museum of Missing History makes a difference.

Learn more about Degas' bronzes at the Norton Simon Museum and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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