The Riders

c. 1885

Edgar Degas

Artist, French, 1834 - 1917

Six men on horseback and wearing jockeys’ uniforms line up on a grassy field in front of us in this loosely painted horizontal scene. The jockeys and horses’ features are especially freely painted so much of the detail is indistinct. The horses are all chestnut brown except for two at the middle, which are dark brown. One horse, second from our right, rears up on its hind legs, and one to our left nuzzles its neighbor. The riders all wear brimmed caps or helmets, white pants, and knee-high black boots. Their caps and high-necked shirts are painted in shades of goldenrod yellow, aquamarine blue, white, red, or peach. Their faces and hands are peach-colored or light brown. Some of the horses and the rider’s clothing are outlined in black. One of the riders is set a little farther back than the others. A black silhouette in the near distance to our right suggests a man wearing a suit and tall top hat. Swipes of black, brown, sky blue, and white create the impression of a crowd across from us, gathered on the far side of the grassy area. Light green fields continue back to a line of shamrock-green trees at the foot of gently sloping hills. White clouds screen the ice-blue sky above, which takes up the top quarter of the painting. The paint seems thinly applied in many areas, especially the horses and the grassy fields, so the weave of the canvas is visible under strokes of green and brown. The artist signed the lower right corner, “Degas.”

Media Options

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On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 83

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

  • Dimensions

    overall: 73.03 × 90.81 cm (28 3/4 × 35 3/4 in.)
    framed: 85.09 × 104.14 × 5.08 cm (33 1/2 × 41 × 2 in.)

  • Accession

    2014.18.7

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Artwork history & notes

Provenance

The artist; (Ambroise Vollard [1866-1939], Paris);[1] purchased 1911 by Jules Strauss [1861-1943], Paris;[2] (his sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris,15 December 1932, no. 36); purchased by (André Schoeller [1879-1955], Paris).[3] Collection Schwenck, Paris, by 1946.[4] Private collection, Swizterland; sold March 1967 through Simon Scheib, New York to Paul Mellon [1907-1999], Upperville, Virginia;[5] bequest 1999 to NGA, with life interest to his wife, Rachel Lambert Mellon [1910-2014].
[1] The painting is reproduced in l’Album Degas, Galerie A. Vollard, Paris, 1914: pl. 54.
[2] Pauline Baer, the great-granddaughter of Jules Strauss, kindly shared with NGA the details of her great-grandfather's purchase of the painting (see her e-mail of 6 September 2016, in NGA curatorial files). The purchase is recorded in Strauss's personal papers with the following comment: "de chez Vollard provenant directement de Degas."
[3] Annotated sales catalogue in Chester Dale collection, NGA Library. Schoeller was one of the directors at the Galerie Georges Petit and often an expert at sales, so it is possible this painting was bought in at the Strauss sale.
[4] Per Lemoisne, Paul André. Degas et son oeuvre. 4 vols. Paris: Arts et metiers graphiques, 1946-1949. Vols. 2 and 3, 1946. (Reprinted in 5 vols., New York and London, 1984): no. 859, repro.
[5] See letter of 29 February 1967 from John Rewald to Paul Mellon, as well as the annotated letter of 10 March 1967 from Simon Sheib to Mellon, in NGA curatorial files. Sheib was a laywer acting on behalf of the Swiss client who sold the painting..

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1913

  • Grosse Kunstaustellung, Kunstgebäude Schlosspltatz, Stuttgart, 1913, no. 314.

1914

  • Art Français: exposition d'art décoratif contemporain 1800-1885, Grosvenor House, London, 1914, repro.

1924

  • Exposition Degas, Galeries Georges Petit, Paris, 1924, no. 71.

1937

  • Degas, Orangerie des Tuileries, Paris, 1937, no. 36.

1949

  • [Degas exhibition], Galerie Max Kaganovitch, Paris, 1949.

2016

  • Max Liebermann: vom Freizeitvergnugen zum modernen Sport [Max Liebermann: Riding, Tennis, Polo, from Leisure Activity to Modern Sports], Kunsthalle Bremen, 2016-2017, no. 69, repro.

Bibliography

1913

  • Kunstausstellungen, Kunst und Künstler XI (1913): 579, repro.

1933

  • "Prices Received in Strauss Sale." Art News 31 (7 January 1933): 3+

1946

  • Lemoisne, Paul André. Degas et son oeuvre. 4 vols. Paris: Arts et metiers graphiques, 1946-1949. Vols. 2 and 3, 1946. (Reprinted in 5 vols., New York and London, 1984): no. 859, repro.

1970

  • Minervino, Fiorella. L'Opera Completa di Degas. Milan, 1970: no. 705, repro.

1998

  • Boggs, Jean Sutherland. Degas at the Races. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, 1998: 154, repro.

2014

  • Kelly, Franklin. "A Lasting Legacy: The Completion of an Unparalleled Gift." National Gallery of Art Bulletin no. 51 (Fall 2014):16-17, repro.

2017

  • Hoenigswald, Ann, and Kimberly A. Jones. "The Question of Finish in the Work of Edgar Degas." In Degas, Daphne Barbour and Suzanne Quillen Lomax, eds. Facture. Conservation, Science, Art History 3 (2017): 20-49, esp. 36-37, fig. 14.

Inscriptions

lower right: Degas

Wikidata ID

Q20189780

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