Provenance
Purchased 26 April 1872 from the artist by (Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris); sent 12 December 1872 to (Durand-Ruel Gallery, London); sold 5 March 1874 to Jean Baptiste Faure [1830-1914], Paris; returned by Faure to Degas at the artist's request; gift to James Tissot [1836-1902], Paris; purchased 11 March 1890 by (Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris); acquired the same day by Joseph Durand-Ruel, Paris; acquired 25 August 1891 by Paul Durand-Ruel [1831-1922] for his private collection, Paris; his estate; sent 16 November 1925 to (Durand-Ruel Gallery, New York), where it was registered as stock in January 1936;[1] Mr. and Mrs. Jean D'Alayer, of the Durand-Ruel family, 1951 to at least 1960.[2] (Janet Traeger Salz, Inc., New York), by 1991; (sale, Sotheby's, London, 30 June 1992, no. 4, bought in); sold March 1995 to NGA.
[1] Early provenance per 1992 Sotheby's sale catalogue.
[2] Mrs. d'Alayer was born Marie-Louise Durand-Ruel, granddaughter of the dealer Paul Durand-Ruel. The d'Alayers were lenders to a Degas exhibition at the Berner Kunstmuseum in 1951, and according to a label on the painting's stretcher, the lenders to a 1960 exhibition at Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris.
Accession Number
1995.11.1
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 31.8 x 40 cm (12 1/2 x 15 3/4 in.) | framed: 47 x 54.9 x 5.1 cm (18 1/2 x 21 5/8 x 2 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Chester Dale Fund
Tags
Painting Impressionist & Modern (1851–1900) Oil Painting Canvas French
Background & Context
Background Story
Horses in a Meadow (c. 1871-1880) depicts the equestrian subject that was Degas's most consistent interest throughout his career—from his early classical paintings of Alexander and Bucephalus to his late racing subjects. Unlike the racecourse paintings that show horses in the specific context of modern sport, Horses in a Meadow presents the animals in a more contemplative setting—grazing, resting, and moving through pasture with the natural ease that distinguished real horses from the stylized equestrian subjects of Academic tradition. The 1871-80 date places this during Degas's most productive period, when his interest in horses was feeding into both his racing subjects and his more observational equine studies. His treatment of the horses demonstrates the anatomical knowledge that made his equestrian paintings so convincing: each horse's posture, movement, and physical character is rendered with the precision that comes from years of studying horses at the racetrack, in the stable, and in the pasture. The meadow setting, with its informal arrangement of horses at rest and in motion, provides a context that emphasizes the animals' natural behavior rather than their utility for sport or work. Degas's approach—studying horses in their natural state rather than in the controlled contexts of Academic equestrian painting—influenced how animals were represented in modern art.
Cultural Impact
Degas's horse paintings influenced how equine subjects were represented in modern art, replacing Academic convention with observational precision. The paintings influenced later animal painters who similarly studied their subjects in natural rather than controlled settings. The Horses in a Meadow subject influenced how the relationship between natural behavior and artistic representation was understood, connecting Degas's equestrian work to his broader observational method.
Why It Matters
This painting matters because it reveals the observational method that made Degas the foremost painter of horses in modern art—studying the animals in their natural behavior rather than in the controlled contexts of Academic tradition, and rendering their physical character with the precision that comes from genuine knowledge rather than conventional formula.
