The Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen, Camille Laurens

"She is world famous, but how many know her name? Her silhouette can be admired in Washington, Paris, London, New York, Dresden or Copenhagen, but where is her tomb? We only know her age, fourteen, and the work she did, because it was already work, at an age when our children go to school. In the 1880s, she danced as a ballet rat at the Paris Opera, and what often makes our little girls dream was not a dream for her, not the happy age of our youth. She was dismissed after a few years of toil; the director had had enough of her repeated absences. This is because she had another job, and even two, because the few pennies earned at the Opera were not enough to feed her or her family. She was a model; she posed for painters and sculptors. Among them was Edgar Degas."

Camille Laurens