Description
Degas returned to the theme of horse and rider time and again throughout his career. Scholars believe that he executed the first version of this composition of four jockeys on horseback in a charcoal and pastel drawing. Several years later, he traced the composition, reversing its orientation to create the highly finished Cleveland pastel. The palette is intensified, the distance between the second and third jockeys is increased, and the foliage along the horizon has been added to suggest a lush spring day.
Provenance
Henry Lerolle [1848–1929], Paris (by 1918-after 1933); (Hector Brame, Paris) (?-?); (César M. de Hauke, New York) (?-?); (Jacques Seligmann, New York, sold to Leonard C. Hanna, Jr., Cleveland, OH) (after 1933-1939); Leonard C. Hanna Jr. [1889–1957], Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art (1939-1958); Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1958-)
Accession Number
1958.27
Medium
pastel with charcoal underdrawing on tracing paper mounted on cardboard
Dimensions
Sheet: 57.5 x 65.4 cm (22 5/8 x 25 3/4 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Credit Line
Bequest of Leonard C. Hanna Jr.
Tags
Drawing Impressionist & Modern (1851–1900) Pastel Charcoal Paper Board French
Background & Context
Background Story
Before the Race captures the tense anticipation at the racetrack before the start. Jockeys on their mounts are gathered in a loose group, their attention focused forward while the horses fidget and the crowd mills behind the barrier. Degas visited the racetracks at Longchamp and Auteuil obsessively, and his understanding of horses is evident in every line: the restive shift of weight, the alert ears, the compact power of the thoroughbred body. The pastel medium, with its capacity for both line and color, allows Degas to suggest the scene's energy without freezing it.
Cultural Impact
The 1880s were Degas's great decade for racing subjects. His pastels from this period combine the observational precision of his early work with the chromatic freedom of his late style. The tracing paper support — increasingly his preferred surface — gives the pastel a luminous quality that ordinary paper cannot match, while the charcoal underdrawing provides structural bones beneath the color flesh.
Why It Matters
Before the Race is Degas at his most observant and his most experimental simultaneously. The racetrack setting gives him a real-world subject, while the pastel technique pushes toward abstraction.
