Fourteen

Marie Van Goethen was fourteen on 17 February 1878, so Degas must have started on the nude version some time after that date and probably continued working on it at intervals throughout 1879. The dressed figure was apparently begun either towards the end of 1879 or, more probably, in the spring of 1880, after Degas decided not to exhibit the nude version at the fifth Impressionist exhibition, and he seems to have added the finishing touches to it at the beginning of April 1881, during the first days of the following exhibition.

fourteen