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3. Hilaire-Germaine-Edgar Degas, French, 1834-1917. Race Horses, c. 1873-75. Oil on canvas, 57.5 x 65.5 cm. Bequest of Leonard C. Hanna, Jr., 1958.27
In Race Horses, two groups of riders and horses are captured in the quick, rough brush strokes characteristic of impressionism. One group of riders and horses rest calmly while another appears to have just returned. Edgar Degas had no interest in the race to the finish line, but preferred to depict the moments before a race and the preliminary runs. The medium of pastel used in this work was ideal for Degas' practice of adapting and combining poses and figures from different studies to create the final composition.
Born in 1874 to an upper-middle-class banking family, Degas became the only artist in a family of businessmen. In 1855, at the age of 21, he abandoned the study of law and enrolled in the École des Beaux-Arts, where he studied with Louis Lamothe (1822-1869), a pupil of the renowned French academic painter Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867). Throughout his career Degas revered Ingres and followed his teachings, most notably by emphasizing line and drawing in his art. Even after Degas moved away from the highly finished scenes of history and classical antiquity that characterize his early career to contemporary scenes of daily life, drawing always dominated his work.
The cropped view in Race Horses reveals the influence of photography. Degas once wrote that "instantaneity is photography." Though developed in the early 19th century, the camera did not become popular until the century's end. It was through the serial photographs of Eadweard J. Muybridge (1830-1904) that artists learned how horses galloped and how people moved. Until these studies elucidated them, the motions of a running horse's legs were unintelligible to the naked eye. The off-center composition also reflects the influence of Japanese prints, familiar in the work of Degas and many other artists of the 19th century.
Vivian Kung and Patricia Richmond
Teacher Resource Center
Department of Education and Public Programs
© 1997 The Cleveland Museum of Art
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