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 [1866-1939], 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.
Accession Number
1999.79.10
Medium
oil on canvas
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.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon
Tags
Painting Impressionist & Modern (1851–1900) Oil Painting Canvas French
Background & Context
Background Story
Scene from the Steeplechase: The Fallen Jockey (1866, reworked 1880s) is one of Degas's most dramatic racing subjects, depicting the moment when a jockey has been thrown from his horse during a steeplechase—the most dangerous form of horse racing. The 1866 date makes this one of Degas's earliest racing subjects, painted when he was first engaging with the racetrack culture that would produce some of his most celebrated works. The later reworking—probably in the 1880s—demonstrates Degas's characteristic practice of returning to earlier compositions and revising them in light of his developing method. The fallen jockey subject allowed Degas to combine his equestrian interests with a narrative drama that was rare in his racing subjects: where most of his racetrack paintings depict races in progress or jockeys preparing, the fallen jockey shows the consequences of the sport's inherent danger. The jockey, thrown from his mount at high speed, lies on the ground while the horse continues riderless—a moment that reveals the physical risk that jockeys accepted and the violence that the sport sometimes produced. The painting also documents the steeplechase—the race over obstacles that was the most dangerous and most exciting form of horse racing—at a specific historical moment when the sport was at the height of its popularity in France.
Cultural Impact
Degas's fallen jockey painting influenced how the danger of horse racing was represented in art, revealing the physical risk that the sport's glamour concealed. The painting influenced later artists who similarly depicted athletic danger, connecting sport's visual excitement to its physical consequences. The steeplechase subject influenced how French racing culture was documented in art, recording the sport at the height of its popularity.
Why It Matters
This painting matters because it reveals the danger behind the spectacle of horse racing—the fallen jockey who demonstrates that the sport's glamour conceals physical risk. Degas's willingness to show what racing's supporters preferred to conceal is one of his most important ethical innovations, arguing that art's responsibility is to show the truth rather than the surface of modern experience.
