The Races

1871-1872

Edgar Degas

Associated Names
Edgar Degas

Artist, French, 1834 - 1917

Six jockeys wearing colorful silks sit astride brown and black horses on a grassy field in this horizontal painting. Two more riders wearing top hats sit a bit farther back from the group, and two horses run on a grass track behind that. Five of the jockeys are together in the lower left quadrant. From left to right, they wear a black jersey with white sleeves, pink with black sleeves, black with sky-blue sleeves, emerald green, and canary yellow. The sixth jockey approaches from the right and wears white. The horizon comes about a third of the way up the composition, and the lawn is painted with blended strokes of spruce green and tawny brown. Three smokestacks belching smoke line the horizon, and three towers, two with spires, presumably represent a church in the deep distance to the left. Strokes of ochre yellow, beige, cream white, and brown represent houses clustered along the horizon. Lilac-purple-tinged clouds sweep across the watery blue sky above. The landscape is loosely painted with visible or blended strokes. The artist signed the lower right corner, “Degas.”

Media Options

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On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 82

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on wood

  • Credit Line

    Widener Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 26.6 x 35.1 cm (10 1/2 x 13 13/16 in.)
    framed: 42.2 x 49.9 cm (16 5/8 x 19 5/8 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1942.9.18

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Purchased from the artist in April 1872 by (Durand-Ruel, Paris); sold 7 May 1873 to Jean-Baptiste Faure [1830-1914], Paris; sold 28 February 1881 to (Durand-Ruel, Paris);[1] Jules Féder, Paris. Erwin Davis, New York; (his sale, New York, 19 March 1889, no. 62, as Before the Races). (Cottier and Co., London and New York); sold 1894 to Peter A.B. Widener [d. 1915], Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; Inheritance from the Estate of Peter A. B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park; gift 1942 to NGA.
[1]Information about Durand-Ruel stock numbers and sales dates according to Michael Pantazzi in Degas, exh. cat., Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1988-1989, pp. 221-223, notes 9 and 23.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1915

  • Loan Exhibition of Masterpieces of Old and Modern Painters, M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 1915, no. 23

1982

  • Manet and Modern Paris, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1982-1983, no. 48, repro.

1998

  • Degas at the Races, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1998, no. 50, repro., as Before the Race.

2001

  • Degas and America: The Early Collectors, High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 2001, no. 25, repro.

2013

  • Intimate Impressionism from the National Gallery of Art, Museo dell'Ara Pacis Augustae, Rome (exhibition title in this venue: Impressionist Gems); California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco; McNay Art Museum, San Antonio; Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, Tokyo, Seattle Art Museum, 2013-2016, pl. 19.

Bibliography

1915

  • Roberts, William. Pictures in the Collection of P.A.B. Widener at Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania: British and Modern French Schools, Philadelphia, 1915: unpaginated, repro.

1923

  • Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1923: unpaginated, repro.

1948

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Widener Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1948 (reprinted 1959): 107, repro.

1962

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. Treasures from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1962: 156, color repro.

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 325, repro.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 38.

1966

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:436, color repro.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 32, repro.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 96, repro.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 474, no. 699, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 118, repro.

1988

  • Pantazzi, Michael. In Degas, Exh. cat. Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1988-1989:160 221-223, n. 9, repro.

1991

  • Loyrette, Henri. Degas. Paris, 1991: 751, no. 437.

1993

  • Kendall, Richard. Degas Landscapes. New Haven and London, 1993:112, repro.

1997

  • Kelder, Diane. The Great Book of French Impressionism. New York, 1997: no. 268, repro.

1998

  • Degas at the Races. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1998: no. 50.

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. 13.

Inscriptions

lower right: Degas

Wikidata ID

Q20188740

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