The Guardian reports on Sotheby’s Degas statue going the extra mile to ask an accomplished ballerina her opinion of the famous sculpture:

It was the only sculpture Degas exhibited in his lifetime, in wax because he could not afford to have it cast. The portrait of Marie van Goethem, one of the dancers at the Paris Opera who inspired so many of his pastels, a weary figure in wrinkled tights jutting a defiant chin, was seen as shockingly realistic. The wax was found on his death, and cast in bronze five years later: copies are in the Tate, d’Orsay in Paris and Metropolitan in New York.

Yesterday Lily Howes, a 14-year-old dancer from the Royal Ballet, who knows all about weariness after two-hour rehearsal and three-hour performance days as Clara in The Nutcracker at Covent Garden, said: “I think she’s really good – but she’s leaning back a bit too much.”