Edgar Degas' famous little wax statue of the Little Dancer Aged Fourteen - thirty copies of which were cast in bronze after the artist's death - shocked his contemporaries. They were startled by the contrast between its lifelike aura and the girl's strong physiognomy, which struck them as ugly and even criminal. Degas had dressed the statue in a real tutu, leotard, tights and ballet shoes, and placed a velvet bow in its hair. He then covered the shoes, tights and leotard with a thin layer of wax, which he tinted. In the end, it looked as if the model herself had been encased in the material. Degas had started by making various studies on paper, followed by a 3-dimensional one in wax. When this was finished, he bent the neck further back to make the face stand out more. He also pushed the arms away from the hips, emphasising the distinctive, slightly strained attitude. Telltale cracks in the bronze versions of the study still reveal these early modifications. The study is a lot smaller than the finished statue and is much less detailed. It looks younger and more vulnerable. The damage had yet to be done.