Editing Impressionism (section)

=== Sculpture ===

[[File:Bailarina Degas Washington.jpg|upright=0.5|thumb|right|Edgar Degas's ''Little Dancer of Fourteen Years'' at the [[National Gallery of Art]], Washington, D.C.]]

While Edgar Degas was primarily known as a painter in his lifetime, he began to pursue the medium of sculpture later in his artistic career in the 1880s. He created as many as 150 sculptures during his lifetime. Degas preferred the medium of wax for his sculptures because it allowed him to make changes, start over, and further explore the modelling process.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Locheed |first1=Jessica |title=Beyond the form: the ineffable essence of Degas' sculpture |journal=Sculpture Journal |date=June 2009 |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=86–99 |doi=10.3828/sj.18.1.7 |url=https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/10.3828/sj.18.1.7 |access-date=18 March 2024 |language=en |issn=1366-2724}}</ref> Only one of Degas's sculptures, ''[[Little Dancer of Fourteen Years]]'', was exhibited in his lifetime, which was exhibited at the Sixth Impressionist Exhibition in 1881. ''Little Dancer'' proved to be controversial with critics. Some considered Degas to have overthrown sculptural traditions in the same way that Impressionism had overthrown the traditions of painting. Others found it to be ugly.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Barbour |first1=Daphne |title=Degas's Little Dancer: Not Just a Study in the Nude |journal=Art Journal |date=1995 |volume=54 |issue=2 |pages=28–32 |doi=10.2307/777459 |jstor=777459 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/777459 |access-date=18 March 2024 |issn=0004-3249 |archive-date=18 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240318144700/https://www.jstor.org/stable/777459 |url-status=live }}</ref> Following the Degas's death in 1917, his heirs authorized bronze castings from 73 of the artist's sculptures.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kendall |first1=Richard |title=Degas's sculpture in the twenty-first century |journal=The Burlington Magazine |date=2012 |volume=154 |issue=1309 |pages=268–271 |jstor=23232564 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23232564 |access-date=18 March 2024 |issn=0007-6287 |archive-date=18 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240318144700/https://www.jstor.org/stable/23232564 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The sculptor [[Auguste Rodin]] is sometimes called an Impressionist for the way he used roughly modeled surfaces to suggest transient light effects.<ref>Kleiner, Fred S., and Helen Gardner (2014). ''Gardner's art through the ages: a concise Western history''. Boston, MA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. p. 382. {{ISBN|978-1-133-95479-8}}.</ref> The sculptor [[Medardo Rosso]] has also been called an Impressionist.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Caramel |first1=Luciano |title=Medardo Rosso: Impressions in Wax & Bronze: 1882-1906 |date=1988 |publisher=Kent Fine Arts |location=New York |isbn=978-1-878607-02-7 |pages=10–15 |edition=First |url=https://archive.org/details/medardorossoimpr0000luci/ |access-date=18 March 2024}}</ref>

Some Russian artists created Impressionistic sculptures of animals in order to break away from old world concepts. Their works have been described as endowing birds and beasts with new spiritual characteristics.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Portnova |first=Irina |date=2019-12-10 |title=On the meaning and novelty of impressionistic thinking on the example of Russian animalistic sculpture of the late XIX – early XX centuries |journal=Scientific and Analytical Journal Burganov House. The Space of Culture |volume=15 |issue=4 |pages=82–107 |doi=10.36340/2071-6818-2019-15-4-82-107 |doi-broken-date=1 November 2024 |issn=2618-7965|doi-access=free }}</ref>