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Lot Essay
One of the Degas’ most admired bronze horse models, Cheval faisant une 'descente de main' combines the artist's fascination with the races and that of the ballet. Anne Dumas writes, "Degas was obsessed, above all, with the figure, with movement and pose. Drawing for him was a way of discovering and capturing motion and posture. His sculpture can perhaps be seen as an extension to drawing, a means by which Degas could work through his ideas in a direct, tactile and three-dimensional form, and a fresh arena in which to work out problems. Like his printmaking, sculpture was a particularly experimental form" (quoted in J.S. Czestochowski and A. Pingeot, eds., op. cit., p. 40).
In the present bronze, as in a sketch, the artist isolates the horse, modelling it suspended, as in an anatomic study. Seemingly bowing against an imaginary jockey, one can feel the fleeting nature of its gesture as the bowed neck is just about to rise, and its body weight is shifting. Indeed, the symmetry of curve in the horse’s risen fore and hindlegs give it an elegance akin to that of a bowing dancer, or the balance of a ballerina frozen mid-air in an arabesque. With his horses, Degas went against the static realism which had been used by artists sculpting equine subjects before him, and instead imbued his figures with drama, motion and performativity. The horse becomes a performer on the “stage” of the races, in a very similar way that the Petite danseuse is at the Opéra. Throughout his oeuvre, and particularly in sculpture, the artist captured the essence of the characters at the heart of the leisure and spectacle that was central to Modern life. Through his keen observation of their choreographies, he created a pause in time, capturing them in a single instant and revealing the secret magic hidden in their brisk movements.
The present work was previously in the prestigious collection of Lucille Ellis and Norton Simon, whose extensive collection of Degas bronzes now inhabit the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena. It has been in the collection of its present owner for a quarter century, since it was purchased at Christie’s, New York, as part of the Lucille Ellis Simon Estate sale.
In the present bronze, as in a sketch, the artist isolates the horse, modelling it suspended, as in an anatomic study. Seemingly bowing against an imaginary jockey, one can feel the fleeting nature of its gesture as the bowed neck is just about to rise, and its body weight is shifting. Indeed, the symmetry of curve in the horse’s risen fore and hindlegs give it an elegance akin to that of a bowing dancer, or the balance of a ballerina frozen mid-air in an arabesque. With his horses, Degas went against the static realism which had been used by artists sculpting equine subjects before him, and instead imbued his figures with drama, motion and performativity. The horse becomes a performer on the “stage” of the races, in a very similar way that the Petite danseuse is at the Opéra. Throughout his oeuvre, and particularly in sculpture, the artist captured the essence of the characters at the heart of the leisure and spectacle that was central to Modern life. Through his keen observation of their choreographies, he created a pause in time, capturing them in a single instant and revealing the secret magic hidden in their brisk movements.
The present work was previously in the prestigious collection of Lucille Ellis and Norton Simon, whose extensive collection of Degas bronzes now inhabit the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena. It has been in the collection of its present owner for a quarter century, since it was purchased at Christie’s, New York, as part of the Lucille Ellis Simon Estate sale.