Scene from the Steeplechase: The Fallen Jockey

1866, reworked 1880-1881 and c. 1897

Edgar Degas

Painter, French, 1834 - 1917

A band of several galloping horses and riders move across the center of this vertical painting. The color palette is dominated by blended earthy brown, green, and pale pink. The horses, which have reddish-brown coats and tails, nearly span the width of the painting. They move to our left with their legs fully extended. Underneath the horses’ flying legs lies the body of a man. The felled rider faces upward, his eyes closed and his legs splayed. He has a light brown beard, mustache, and hair, and pale tan skin. He wears brown riding boots with black tops, white breeches, and a pink jersey with black sleeves. His riding helmet, with a matching pink cover, lies behind his head on the ground. At least three additional horses are in the band, and the two foremost have empty saddles. The two horses beyond them, farther into the picture, have male riders, who wear riding outfits and helmets in colors of smudged and blended orange, lavender purple, and green. They also have brown mustaches and beards. The band races through a field painted with a muddy green interspersed with strokes of orange and white. The horizon line is high, just above the level of the horses’ backs, about four-fifths of the way up the painting. Blue sky peeks out amid a mixture of pale pink and yellow clouds above. There are trees in the background indicated by a few strokes and dashes of paint. The painting style is loose and brushy throughout, without sharp detail or lines, except for the sketched-in black lines that delineate the bodies and tack of the horses.

Media Options

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It isn’t always easy to realize your vision. Degas often struggled with finishing his paintings, reworking them in his quest for perfection. This one proved especially challenging.

Degas originally painted this in 1866 but returned to it at least twice decades later. He made significant changes each time. Bits of the original blue sky peek through at the top of the canvas. And we can still see the rump and raised tail of a horse that has since disappeared. Rather than hiding the evidence, Degas leaves it exposed, allowing us to track the evolution of this painting.
 

On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 83

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

  • Dimensions

    overall: 180 × 152 cm (70 7/8 × 59 13/16 in.)
    framed: 202.57 × 173.67 × 6.67 cm (79 3/4 × 68 3/8 × 2 5/8 in.)

  • Accession

    1999.79.10

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(Atelier Degas, first sale, Galerie Georges Petit, 6-8 May 1918, no. 19, as Aux Courses: le jockey blessé); (Joseph Durand-Ruel, Paris); (Ambrose Vollard [1867-1939], Paris); Jacques Seligmann, Paris; (his sale, American Art Galleries, New York, 27 January 1921, no. 70); purchased by (William W. Seaman, American Art Association) for Gari Melchers [1860-1932], Fredericksburg, Virginia; by inheritance to his wife, Corinne Lawton Mackall Melchers [1880-1955, Mrs. Gari Melchers], Richmond, Virginia; her residuary legatee, Lawton Mackall;[1] (Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York); purchased June 1960 by Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, Upperville, Virginia; bequest 1999 to NGA.
[1] This is possibly Mrs. Melchers's brother, Alexander Lawton Mackall.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1866

  • Annual Salon, Paris, 1866, no. 530, as Scène de steeple-chase.

1941

  • Loan to display with permanent collection, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, 1941.

1947

  • Works by Edgar Degas, Cleveland Museum of Art, 1947, no. 28, repro., as The Dead Jockey (Aux courses: le jockey blessé).

1960

  • Loan Exhibition: Degas, Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York, 1960, no. 11, repro.

1966

  • French Paintings from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon and Mrs. Mellon Bruce, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1966, no. 48, repro.

1998

  • Degas at the Races, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1998, no. 16, repro.

1999

  • An Enduring Legacy: Masterpieces from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1999-2000, no cat.

2010

  • Degas, Yokohama Museum of Art, 2010, no. 19, repro.

2011

  • Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; The National Art Center, Tokyo; Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, 2011, no. 14, repro.

2013

  • Degas' Method, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, 2013, no. 140, fig. 3.

2015

  • Loan for display with permanent collection, Art Institute of Chicago, 2015-2016.

2016

  • Unfinished: Thoughts Left Visible, The Met Breuer, New York, 2016, no. 110, repro.

  • Degas: A New Vision, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2016-2017, unnumbered catalogue (shown only in Houston).

Bibliography

1966

  • Goldwater, Robert. "The Glory that was France." Art News 65 (March 1966): 86.

1982

  • Isaacson, Joel. "Impressionism and Journalistic Illustration." Arts Magazine 56, no. 10 (June 1982): 103, repro.

1991

  • Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 274.

1993

  • Rachlum, Stephanie. The Sam Spiegel Collection. Exh. cat. The Israel Museum. Jerusalem, 1993: 24, under no. 11.

1996

  • Roos, Jane Mayo. Early Impressionism and the French State (1866-1874). Cambridge, 1996: 60-61, fig. 50.

1998

  • Degas at the Races. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1998: no. 16.

2004

  • Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 374-375, no. 306, color 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. 26-30, 41, figs. 3 and 5 (infrared reflectogram).

Inscriptions

lower right, vente stamp: Degas

Wikidata ID

Q20188683

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