Degas at the Races: Paintings and Drawings
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Scene from the Steeplechase: The Fallen Jockey, 1866; reworked, 1880-1881 and c. 1897, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, Upperville, Virginia
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Degas' ambitious but problematic history paintings of the late 1850s and early 1860s included works such as Sémiramis Building Babylon (Musée d'Orsay, Paris) and The Young Spartans (National Gallery, London). A Scene of War in the Middle Ages (The Misfortunes of the City of Orléans) (Musée d'Orsay, Paris) was accepted for the Salon of 1865 but did not receive much attention. This focus on history painting is an indication of Degas' ambition as well as his adherence to the traditional means of winning official commendation and commissions by exhibiting at the Salon.
Degas' next step was to exhibit Scene from the Steeplechase, or Une Scène de Steeplechase, the following year. The title is generic, that is, it does not describe a specific event. In part, this may be Degas' response to the art of a slightly older contemporary, Édouard Manet, who in 1864 had exhibited Episode From a Bullfight, another painting with a generic title that depicted a tragic scene from modern life.
What is Degas trying to do with this painting? It is one of the largest he ever made: more than seven feet by five feet. Perhaps he learned the importance of presenting a large, noticeable painting from his experience with the Salon the previous year. But this painting is also ambitious in another critical respect. Now, for the first time, he creates an image of modern life for the Salon.
Viewers would have been familiar with this type of scene, as horse racing had become increasingly popular in France, particularly during the 1860s. A number of prestigious races had been established, most notably the Grand Prix de Paris in 1863. With a purse of 100,000 francs, it was one of the best endowed races in all of Europe.
The dangerous steeplechase was another matter. Unlike horse racing on the flats, a steeplechase is a risky obstacle course. The French version is based on the English and Irish steeplechase, which is an informal race run in the countryside. A group of men on horseback would choose a steeple--a visible, fixed goal--and race toward it, riding over everything--bridges, fences, hedges, and streams--between the starting point and the end. People fell, frequently injuring or even killing themselves. In France "le steeplechase" was a somewhat more organized event, with a specific distance and course. It was very much a gentleman's race, designed for aristocrats, not for professional jockeys, and was a way for men to demonstrate their sangfroid, their ability to keep a cool head in dangerous circumstances. Certain places specialized in steeplechases, including Le-Pin, a racetrack in Normandy near the estate of the Valpinçons, friends whom Degas frequently visited.
In the early 1860s there were a few paintings at the Salon showing the steeplechase, but no one had painted anything like this. Instead of a modest genre painting of "a gentleman's race," it is epic, ambitious, and full of high drama. Degas has taken an ordinary event--the steeplechase--and turned it into a history painting. It's Alexander and Bucephalus, but in reverse. In this battle between man and horse--man and nature--man has lost. A fallen jockey lies in the foreground while the race continues.
When the painting was exhibited in 1866, it received only a few reviews. Afterwards, Degas took it back into his studio, and it wasn't seen again until around 1880. At that time, Mary Cassatt, a good friend of the artist and herself a member of the impressionist group, talked to Degas about buying racing paintings for her brother, Alexander, who was a skilled rider. She was specifically interested in Scene from the Steeplechase, but Degas was hesitant to part with the painting. It had been in his studio for fourteen years and he still had a vision in mind of how to perfect it. He began to rework the painting, but even in 1881 he was not ready to sell it to the Cassatt family.
Degas apparently reworked Scene from the Steeplechase a second time around 1897. When you look at the painting, evidence of his different campaigns are apparent. The face of the fallen jockey, who is usually identified as Achille Degas, the artist's younger brother, is finely drawn, with delicate features. But if you compare the face with the big, bold brushstrokes used to define the riders at the left, you can see that the technique has changed. In the sky, the patches of blue peeking through are traces of the original sky. Degas repainted most of it using bright pinks and dynamic colors.
There is also evidence of the initial composition. The upraised tail of a horse can be seen as a line in the sky above the trees (the second from the right). That line echoes the brown tail in the painting as it is today. If you look between the front legs of the forwardmost horse, you can see a shadow, which is actually the original leg. An undefined round, brown area at the right was at one time a fallen horse, probably left there from the original painting.
In the final work, Degas uses black outlining extensively. This is unusual in his early work, but not uncommon in his very late work. He often used outlining to emphasize figures in his paintings from the 1890s and early 1900s. Thus, this work encompasses almost four decades of Degas' career from the beginning in 1866 through the late work of the 1890s.