Lot Essay
Degas turned to the theme of the horse and rider time and again throughout his career, executing more paintings, drawings and sculptures of this subject than of any other besides the ballet. His interest in equine images dates back to his days as a student at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, when he made numerous copies of horses and riders from the paintings of Uccello, Gozzoli, van Dyck and Géricault. A more contemporary source for Degas's equestrian scenes was his father's collection of English sporting prints, one of which appears in the background of Degas's 1873 painting Bouderie (Lemoisne, no. 335; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). Commenting upon the prolonged fascination which the theme of the horse and rider held for Degas, critic Julius Meier-Graefe wrote:
[Degas] seized upon the horses, the jockeys, the crowd, the world of the racehorse, with its special colors and lines and its special
elegance. He showed how the legs of the jockeys become part of their horses; he revealed the mechanism of the riders intent only on their motion; he depicted the improvised and unpremeditated jostling of the horses at the start, the last minute before the signal is
given, what happens before and after the race, and all the things that go on simultaneously in the elegant carriages of the spectators. (J. Meier-Graefe, Degas, Munich, 1920, p. 33)
Cavaliers sur une route was executed between 1864 and 1868, during the first period in Degas's career in which the horse and rider appear with particular frequency. In the majority of Degas's equestrian scenes from the 1860's, the artist strives above all to re-create the social spectacle of prominent 19th century racetracks like Longchamps; in Cavaliers sur une route, by contrast, he focuses upon the anatomy and movement of the horses and riders, anticipating in this respect his second large group of racetrack pictures from the mid-1880's. Reported to have kept in his studio a dummy horse on which to sit his models, Degas explores in Cavaliers sur une route the variety of poses which the horse and rider can assume, painting certain pairs in profile and others from behind, certain pairs in mid-gallop and others nearly at rest. He examines:
...how riders sit, how their legs mold themselves to the horse's
girth, how they look downward from under the long peaks of their caps, or, relaxed, turn back to look behind them, the free hand resting on the horse's rump...the way the reins are held, or the way the feet rest in the stirrups... (R. Gordon and A. Forge, Degas, New York, 1988, p. 73)
The elegant patterns which Degas creates from the horses' legs and the silhouetted riders draw the viewer's eye effortlessly across the canvas, dividing it into what Gordon and Forge term "shapes that cannot be named but only scanned rhythmically." (Ibid., p. 78) Commenting upon this interplay between the descriptive and the decorative, critic Pierre Cabanne concludes:
The variety and even the imaginative quality in the racetrack
compositions...clearly demonstrate [Degas's] extraordinarily
inventive mind. Wonderful is the truth to the chosen subject and
the freedom now attained by the painter. Whether he selects the
start of the race, the horse held by a jockey, equestrian studies at the paddock, horses grouped or in full action of gallop, whether
made in charcoal, pastel or oils, all the compositions on this theme achieve harmonious perfection with apparent spontaneity and lack of effort. (P. Cabanne, Degas, Paris, 1958, p. 29)
[Degas] seized upon the horses, the jockeys, the crowd, the world of the racehorse, with its special colors and lines and its special
elegance. He showed how the legs of the jockeys become part of their horses; he revealed the mechanism of the riders intent only on their motion; he depicted the improvised and unpremeditated jostling of the horses at the start, the last minute before the signal is
given, what happens before and after the race, and all the things that go on simultaneously in the elegant carriages of the spectators. (J. Meier-Graefe, Degas, Munich, 1920, p. 33)
Cavaliers sur une route was executed between 1864 and 1868, during the first period in Degas's career in which the horse and rider appear with particular frequency. In the majority of Degas's equestrian scenes from the 1860's, the artist strives above all to re-create the social spectacle of prominent 19th century racetracks like Longchamps; in Cavaliers sur une route, by contrast, he focuses upon the anatomy and movement of the horses and riders, anticipating in this respect his second large group of racetrack pictures from the mid-1880's. Reported to have kept in his studio a dummy horse on which to sit his models, Degas explores in Cavaliers sur une route the variety of poses which the horse and rider can assume, painting certain pairs in profile and others from behind, certain pairs in mid-gallop and others nearly at rest. He examines:
...how riders sit, how their legs mold themselves to the horse's
girth, how they look downward from under the long peaks of their caps, or, relaxed, turn back to look behind them, the free hand resting on the horse's rump...the way the reins are held, or the way the feet rest in the stirrups... (R. Gordon and A. Forge, Degas, New York, 1988, p. 73)
The elegant patterns which Degas creates from the horses' legs and the silhouetted riders draw the viewer's eye effortlessly across the canvas, dividing it into what Gordon and Forge term "shapes that cannot be named but only scanned rhythmically." (Ibid., p. 78) Commenting upon this interplay between the descriptive and the decorative, critic Pierre Cabanne concludes:
The variety and even the imaginative quality in the racetrack
compositions...clearly demonstrate [Degas's] extraordinarily
inventive mind. Wonderful is the truth to the chosen subject and
the freedom now attained by the painter. Whether he selects the
start of the race, the horse held by a jockey, equestrian studies at the paddock, horses grouped or in full action of gallop, whether
made in charcoal, pastel or oils, all the compositions on this theme achieve harmonious perfection with apparent spontaneity and lack of effort. (P. Cabanne, Degas, Paris, 1958, p. 29)