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..
Accession Number
2014.18.7
Medium
oil on canvas
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.)
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
The Riders (c. 1871-1880) depicts the jockeys and horses that were the subject of Degas's most sustained engagement with modern life—the racing culture that was one of the distinctive features of Parisian modernity. Unlike the single fallen jockey of the steeplechase painting, The Riders presents multiple jockeys in the informal context of training or preparation—the moments before or after the race when the racetrack's formal spectacle gives way to the working reality that Degas consistently revealed. The 1871-80 date places this during Degas's most productive racing period, when he was a regular visitor to the Longchamp and other Parisian racetracks, studying the horses and jockeys with the systematic attention that his Academic training had taught him to bring to classical subjects. His treatment of the riders demonstrates the anatomical precision that distinguished his racing subjects: each jockey's posture, each horse's movement, and the specific quality of the racetrack environment are rendered with the accuracy that comes from genuine knowledge rather than conventional formula. The painting also reveals the social world that racing produced—the jockeys, the trainers, and the stable workers who made the sport possible but whom conventional racing painting typically ignored in favor of the owners and the fashionable spectators who were its consumers.
Cultural Impact
Degas's rider paintings influenced how the working reality of horse racing was represented in art, revealing the jockeys and trainers whom conventional racing art typically ignored. The paintings influenced later artists who similarly found subjects in the working conditions of modern sport. The Riders influenced how racing culture's social structure was documented, connecting the sport's glamour to the labor that produced it.
Why It Matters
This painting matters because it reveals the working reality behind racing's spectacle—the jockeys and horses in their daily training rather than in the moments of dramatic competition that conventional racing art preferred. Degas's commitment to showing the racetrack's reality rather than its glamour is one of his most important contributions to modern art.
