id: 135262 accession number: 1958.27 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1958.27 updated: 2020-07-23 09:00:08.581000 Before the Race, c. 1887-1889. Edgar Degas (French, 1834-1917). Pastel ; sheet: 57.5 x 65.4 cm (22 5/8 x 25 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. 1958.27 title: Before the Race title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1887-1889 creation date earliest: 1887 creation date latest: 1889 current location: creditline: Bequest of Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. copyright: --- culture: France, 19th century technique: pastel department: Drawings collection: DR - French type: Drawing find spot: catalogue raisonne: Lemoisne 755 --- CREATORS * Edgar Degas (French, 1834-1917) - artist Son of a Parisian banker, Edgar Degas enrolled in law school in 1853 following his father's wishes. But he had already shown an interest in art and had also registered to copy at the Louvre. In 1855 he entered the École des Beaux-Arts and became a student of Louis Lamothe (1822-1869), a former pupil of Ingres (q.v.). One year later Degas made the traditional journey to Italy, remaining there for three years. He visited family members in Naples and Florence and attended life classes at the Villa Medici in Rome. A visit to Normandy in 1861 may have introduced him to the racetrack. In Paris he continued to study at the Louvre, where he met Manet (q.v.) in 1862. Apart from his continuous interest in portraiture and history painting, Degas began to pay attention to subjects of modern life. Between 1865 and 1870, he exhibited at the Salon. At the time of the Franco-Prussian War, he enlisted in the artillery, but because of his poor eyesight he served (with Manet) in the infantry. After the war he traveled first to London and, in 1872-73, visited his uncle and brothers who had a cotton business in New Orleans. Degas participated in the first impressionist exhibition of 1874. He continued to exhibit with these artists until 1886 but never completely considered himself a member of the group, preferring to call himself a realist or naturalist. While many of the impressionists painted en plein air, Degas worked with models in his studio and, later in his career, from his imagination. In addition to painting, he experimented often with monotypes, engraving, pastels, sculpture, and photography. He traveled extensively-London, Naples, Spain, Morocco, and Switzerland-but continued to draw his subject matter from modern-day Paris. Other recurring themes would be the female nude and the ballet dancer. After the impressionist exhibition of 1886, Degas no longer participated in group shows. Instead he sold his works to private dealers such as Durand-Ruel and Ambroise Vollard. In the 1890s he began his own art collection, which, besides many works on paper, included paintings by such artists as Ingres, Cézanne (q.v.), Delacroix (q.v.), Gauguin (q.v.), and van Gogh (q.v.). His own art at the time became characterized by broader strokes of paint, charcoal, and pastel and the use of more vibrant colors, partly because of problems with his vision. His failing eyesight and poor health caused him to abandon his pursuit of art during the last years of his life. --- measurements: Sheet: 57.5 x 65.4 cm (22 5/8 x 25 3/4 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: description: tracing paper mounted to cardboard watermarks: inscriptions: inscription: Signed at lower right: Degas translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Works of Edgar Degas opening date: 1947-02-05T05:00:00 Works of Edgar Degas. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 5-March 9, 1947). title: In Memoriam: Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. opening date: 1958-03-04T05:00:00 In Memoriam: Leonard C. Hanna, Jr.. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (March 4-April 7, 1958). title: Creativity in Art and Science, 1860-1960 opening date: 1987-09-16T04:00:00 Creativity in Art and Science, 1860-1960. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 16-November 8, 1987). title: Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2000-08-27T00:00:00 Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000). title: Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2006-05-27T00:00:00 Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 21, 2007-January 13, 2008). title: Treasures on Paper from the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2014-03-09T00:00:00 Treasures on Paper from the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (March 9-June 8, 2014). title: Pure Color: Pastels from the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2016-11-19T05:00:00 Pure Color: Pastels from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (November 19, 2016-March 19, 2017). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * Exposition du pastel français du XVIIe siècle à nos jours. André J. Seligmann, Paris (November 18 - December 9, 1933). * Masterpieces of Art, New York World's Fair. New York (May - October, 1940). * A Loan Exhibition of Degas for the Benefit of the New York Infirmary. Wildenstein, New York (April 7 - May 14, 1949). * Edgar Degas: Pastelle, Olskizzen, Zeichnungen. Kunsthalle Tübingen (January 14 - March 25, 1984); Nationalgalerie Berlin (April 5 - May 20, 1984). --- PROVENANCE Henry Lerolle [1848-1929], Paris date: by 1918-1929 footnotes: citations: (Hector Brame, Paris) date: after 1929-by 1933 footnotes: citations: (César M. de Hauke, New York) date: after 1929-by 1933 footnotes: citations: (Jacques Seligmann, New York, sold to Leonard C. Hanna, Jr., Cleveland, OH) date: by 1933-1939 footnotes: citations: Leonard C. Hanna, Jr., Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1939-1958 footnotes: citations: Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1958- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: When creating the series to which this pastel belongs, Edgar Degas was inspired by the 19th-century photographer Eadweard Muybridge, who attempted to record motion in static images. digital 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. wall 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. In the final version, Degas repeated the Cleveland composition, but cropped it much more closely. The jockeys loom close to the foreground, their faces abstracted in complex layers of pastel that achieved a new level of freedom and energy of execution. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Hourticq, Louis. "E. Degas." Art et Décoration 32, no. 2 (1912): 97-113. page number: Reproduced: p. 111 url: Lafond, Paul. Degas. Paris: H. Floury, 1918. page number: Reproduced: after p. 126 url: Hertz, Henri. Degas. Paris: Félix Alcan, 1920. page number: Reproduced: pl. VI url: Coquiot, Gustave. Degas. Paris: Ollendorff, 1924. page number: Reproduced: opposite p. 160 url: Fosca, François. Degas. Paris: Librarie de France, 1930. page number: Reproduced: pl. 17 url: Exposition du pastel français du XVIIe siècle à nos jours. Exh. Cat. Paris: André J. Seligmann, 1933. page number: Mentioned: p. 45, no. 67 url: Lazare, Christopher. Catalogue of European & American Paintings, 1500-1900...Masterpieces of Art, New York World's Fair. Exh. Cat. New York: Art Aid Corporation, 1940. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 185, no. 269 url: Lemoisne, Paul Andre. Degas et son oeuvre. Paris: Brame et de Hauke, 1946. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: vol. III, no. 755 url: Francis, Henry Sayles. Works by Degas. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1947. page number: Mentioned: p. 15, no. 22; Reproduced: pl. XVII url: A Loan Exhibition of Degas for the Benefit of the New York Infirmary. Exh. Cat. New York: Wildenstein, 1949. page number: Mentioned: p. 61, no. 67 url: Cabanne, Pierre. Edgar Degas. Paris: Editions Pierre Tisne, 1957. page number: Reprodued: p. 107 url: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. page number: Reproduced: p. 175 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n199 Werner, Alfred. Degas Pastels. New York: Watson-Guptill, 1968. page number: Mentioned: p. 60; Reproduced: p. 61 url: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. page number: Reproduced: p. 175 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n199 Russoli, Franco. L'opera completa di Degas. Milan: Rizzoli, 1970. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: no. 703 url: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. page number: Reproduced: p. 214 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n234 Boggs, Jean Sutherland. Degas at the Races. Exh. Cat. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1998. page number: Mentioned: pp. 138-40; Reproduced: p. 140, fig. 78 url: Bell, Clive. The French Impressionists. New York: Phaidon, 1978. page number: Reproduced: pl. 20 url: Lister, Ron. Drawing with Pastels. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1982. page number: Reproduced: p. 10 url: Gotz, Adriani. Degas Pastels, Oil Sketches, Drawings. Exh. Cat. Tubingen: Kunsthalle, 1984. page number: Mentioned: p. 380, no. 148; Reproduced: pl. 148 url: Boggs, Jean Sutherland, et al. Degas. Exh. Cat. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1988. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 565, fig. 320 url: Gordon, Robert and Andrew Forge. Degas, trans. Richard Howard. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1988. page number: Reproduced: p. 85 url: Maheux, Anne F. Degas Pastels. Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 1988. page number: Mentioned: pp. 68-69; Reproduced: pp. 69 (detail), 72, figs. 32a, 32 url: Pickvance, Ronald. Degas. Exh. Cat. Martigny: Fondation Pierre Gianadda, 1993. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 35 url: Marmor, Michael F. Degas Through His Own Eyes: Visual Disability and the Late Style of Degas. Paris: Somogy, 2002 page number: Reproduced: p. 46, fig. 23 url: Impressionist and Modern Works on Paper. New York: Christie's, 2007. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 18 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1958.27/1958.27_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1958.27/1958.27_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1958.27/1958.27_full.tif