Creative Commons License
Creative Commons License
Before the Race
(18th and 19th Centuries )
Throughout the latter part of his career, Degas was obsessed with the restless beauty of the thoroughbred racehorse. Horse racing, which drew together throngs of people from many levels of society, was a singularly appropriate subject for representing modern life.
Degas typically painted several versions of a composition, making slight variations in each. Here, riders and horses are shown in quiet and agitated movement. By the 1880s, Degas was making good use of recently published, stop-action photographs, which captured movement too fleeting to be perceived by the naked eye and which increased the artist's understanding of the horse in motion.
Inscription
Provenance
Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.
Durand-Ruel; Cyrus J. Lawrence, New York; Cyrus J. Lawrence Sale, New York, January 21, 1910, no. 62; Henry Walters, Baltimore, January 21, 1910, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
Exhibitions
| 2018-2021 | Boldini and his Circle. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. |
| 2014-2016 | From Rye to Raphael: The Walters Story. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. |
| 2012 | Public Property. |
| 2010-2011 | 19th Century Masterpieces from the Walters Art Museum. Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara; Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, Austin. |
| 2007-2008 | Déjà Vu? Revealing Repetition in French Masterpieces. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix. |
| 2002-2004 | A Magnificent Age: Masterpieces from the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City; Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte. |
| 2000-2002 | Triumph of French Painting: Masterpieces from Ingres to Matisse. Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore; Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa; Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach; Dayton Art Institute, Dayton; Royal Academy of Arts, London; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo. |
| 1998-2001 | Highlights from the Collection. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. |
| 1999-2000 | Vive la France! French Treasures from the Middle Ages to Monet. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. |
| 1998 | Before Monet: Landscape Painting in France and Impressionist Masters: Highlights from The Walters Collection. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. |
| 1998 | A Day at the Races: Degas, Manet and Images of the Horse. National Gallery of Art, Washington. |
| 1951 | From Ingres to Gauguin: French Nineteenth Century Paintings Owned in Maryland. Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore. |
Conservation
| Date | Description | Narrative |
|---|---|---|
| 6/1/1971 | Treatment | cleaned |
| 2/28/1979 | Treatment | coated |
| 1/11/1982 | Examination | examined for condition. |
Geographies
France, Paris (Place of Origin)
Measurements
Overall: H: 10 3/8 × W: 13 3/4 in. (26.4 × 34.9 cm)
Framed: H: 22 5/8 × W: 26 1/16 × D: 4 in. (57.5 × 66.2 × 10.2 cm)
Credit Line
Acquired by Henry Walters, 1910
Location in Museum
Not on view
Accession Number
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
37.850