{
"data": {
"id": 135262,
"accession_number": "1958.27",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Before the Race, c. 1887\u201389. Edgar Degas (French, 1834\u20131917). Pastel with charcoal underdrawing on tracing paper mounted on cardboard; 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",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Before the Race",
"creation_date": "c. 1887\u201389",
"creation_date_earliest": 1887,
"creation_date_latest": 1889,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"France, 19th century"
],
"technique": "pastel with charcoal underdrawing on tracing paper mounted on cardboard",
"support_materials": [
{
"description": "tracing paper mounted to cardboard",
"watermarks": []
}
],
"department": "Drawings",
"collection": "DR - French",
"type": "Drawing",
"measurements": "Sheet: 57.5 x 65.4 cm (22 5/8 x 25 3/4 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"sheet": {
"height": 0.575,
"height_inch": 22,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.625,
"width": 0.654,
"width_inch": 25,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.75
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "signed, lower right, in black pastel: Degas",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 312095,
"title": "Works of Edgar Degas",
"description": "Works of Edgar Degas. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 5-March 9, 1947).",
"opening_date": "1947-02-05T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 301477,
"title": "In Memoriam: Leonard C. Hanna, Jr.",
"description": "In Memoriam: Leonard C. Hanna, Jr.. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 4-April 7, 1958).",
"opening_date": "1958-03-04T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 310025,
"title": "Creativity in Art and Science, 1860-1960",
"description": "Creativity in Art and Science, 1860-1960. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 16-November 8, 1987).",
"opening_date": "1987-09-16T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 192019,
"title": "Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"description": "Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000).",
"opening_date": "2000-08-27T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 224558,
"title": "Time Stands Still: Muybridge and the Instantaneous Photography Movement",
"description": "Time Stands Still: Muybridge and the Instantaneous Photography Movement. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 15-May 16, 2004).",
"opening_date": "2004-02-15T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 182153,
"title": "Monet to Dal\u00ed: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"description": "Monet to Dal\u00ed: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 21, 2007-January 13, 2008).",
"opening_date": "2006-05-27T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 204986,
"title": "Treasures on Paper from the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"description": "Treasures on Paper from the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 9-June 8, 2014).",
"opening_date": "2014-03-09T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 283693,
"title": "Pure Color: Pastels from the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"description": "Pure Color: Pastels from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 19, 2016-March 19, 2017).",
"opening_date": "2016-11-19T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 324628,
"title": "Nineteenth-Century French Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"description": "Nineteenth-Century French Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 20-June 11, 2023).",
"opening_date": "2023-01-19T05:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Exposition du pastel fran\u00e7ais du XVIIe si\u00e8cle \u00e0 nos jours. Andr\u00e9 J. Seligmann, Paris (November 18\u2013December 9, 1933).",
"opening_date": "1933-12-09T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Masterpieces of Art, New York World\u2019s Fair. New York (May\u2013October, 1940).",
"opening_date": "1940-10-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "A Loan Exhibition of Degas for the Benefit of the New York Infirmary. Wildenstein, New York (April 7\u2013May 14, 1949).",
"opening_date": "1949-05-14T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Edgar Degas: Pastelle, \u00d6lskizzen, Zeichnungen. Kunsthalle T\u00fcbingen (January 14\u2013March 25, 1984); Nationalgalerie Berlin (April 5\u2013May 20, 1984).",
"opening_date": "1984-03-25T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Henry Lerolle [1848\u20131929], Paris",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "by 1918-after 1933",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "(Hector Brame, Paris)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "?-?",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "(C\u00e9sar M. de Hauke, New York)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "?-?",
"sortorder": 3
},
{
"description": "(Jacques Seligmann, New York, sold to Leonard C. Hanna, Jr., Cleveland, OH)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "after 1933-1939",
"sortorder": 4
},
{
"description": "Leonard C. Hanna Jr. [1889\u20131957], Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1939-1958",
"sortorder": 5
},
{
"description": "Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1958-",
"sortorder": 6
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "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.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"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.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q80028324"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1958.27-before-the-race"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Hourticq, Louis. \u201cE. Degas.\u201d Art et D\u00e9coration 32, no. 2 (1912): 97-113.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 111",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Lafond, Paul. Degas. Paris: H. Floury, 1918.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: after p. 126",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Hertz, Henri. Degas. Paris: F\u00e9lix Alcan, 1920.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: pl. VI",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Coquiot, Gustave. Degas. Paris: Ollendorff, 1924.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: opposite p. 160",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Fosca, Fran\u00e7ois. Degas. Paris: Librarie de France, 1930",
"page_number": "Reproduced: pl. 17",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Exposition du pastel fran\u00e7ais du XVIIe si\u00e8cle \u00e0 nos jours. Exh. cat. Paris: Andr\u00e9 J. Seligmann, 1933.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 45, no. 67",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Pach, Walter. Catalogue of European & American Paintings, 1500\u20131900. Exh. cat. New York: World\u2019s Fair, 1940.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 185, no. 269",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Lemoisne, Paul Andr\u00e9. Degas et son \u0153uvre. Paris: Brame et de Hauke, 1946.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: vol. 3, pp. 428-29, no. 755",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "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": null
},
{
"citation": "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": null
},
{
"citation": "Cabanne, Pierre. Edgar Degas. Paris: Pierre Tisn\u00e9, 1957.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: 117, no. 107.",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Seligman, Germain. Merchants of Art: 1880\u20131960, Eighty Years of Professional Collecting. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1961.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: pl. 76b",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "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"
},
{
"citation": "Werner, Alfred. Degas Pastels. New York: Watson-Guptill, 1968.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 60; Reproduced: p. 61",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "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"
},
{
"citation": "Russoli, Franco. L'opera completa di Degas. Milan: Rizzoli, 1970.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 119\u201320, no. 703",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "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"
},
{
"citation": "Bell, Clive. The French Impressionists. New York: Phaidon, 1978.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 3; Reproduced: pl. 20",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Lister, Ron. Drawing with Pastels. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1982.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 10",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Borowitz, Helen O. \u201cThe Rembrandt and Monet of Marcel Proust.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 70, no. 2 (February 1983): 73\u201395.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 84-85, fig. 10",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25159803"
},
{
"citation": "Gotz, Adriani. Degas Pastels, Oil Sketches, Drawings. Exh. cat. T\u00fcbingen: Kunsthalle, 1984.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 380, no. 148; Reproduced: pl. 148",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Henning, Edward B. Creativity in Art and Science, 1860-1960. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Published by the Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1987.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: P. 98, no. 5",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Boggs, Jean Sutherland, Douglas W. Druick, Henri Loyrette, Michael Pantazzi, and Gary Tinterow. Degas. Exh. cat. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1988.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 565",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Gordon, Robert and Andrew Forge. Degas. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1988.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 85",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Maheux, Anne F. Degas Pastels Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 1988.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: pp. 68-69; Reproduced: pp. 69 (detail), 72",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Pickvance, Ronald. Degas. Exh. cat. Martigny: Fondation Pierre Gianadda, 1993.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 35",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Boggs, Jean Sutherland, ed. Degas at the Races. Exh. cat. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1998.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: pp. 138-40; Reproduced: p. 140",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Marmor, Michael F. Degas through His Own Eyes: Visual Disability and the Late Style of Degas, 38, 46 (ill.). Paris: Somogy, 2002.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 38, 46",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Impressionist and Modern Works on Paper. New York: Christie's, 2007.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 18",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Lemonedes, Heather, \"Unparalleled Color\", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 47 no. 10, December 2007",
"page_number": "Mentioned & reproduced: p. 3",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMM2007-10/page/2"
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: P. 166",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Barbe-Gall, Franc\u0327oise, and Edgar Degas. Pourquoi Degas est Degas. Paris: E\u0301ditions Le Deuxie\u0300me Horizon, 2019.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 58-59",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Lerolle, Aggy. Henry Lerolle: Paris 1848-1929. Willaupuis, Belgium: Wapica; Paris: Socie\u0301te\u0301 des Amis d'Henry Lerolle, 2022.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: P. 78-79",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "\"Drawn to Excellence.\" Fine Art Connoisseur 20, no. 1 (January/February 2023): 90.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: P. 90",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Salsbury, Britany. Nineteenth-Century French Drawings: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Lewes, UK, Cleveland, Ohio: GILES; Cleveland Museum of Art, 2023.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 146-153, no. 28a",
"url": ""
}
],
"catalogue_raisonne": "Lemoisne 755",
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1958.27",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1958.27/1958.27_web.jpg",
"width": "1035",
"height": "893",
"filesize": "219453",
"filename": "1958.27_web.jpg"
},
"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1958.27/1958.27_print.jpg",
"width": "3400",
"height": "2933",
"filesize": "2182520",
"filename": "1958.27_print.jpg"
},
"full": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1958.27/1958.27_full.tif",
"width": "13382",
"height": "11544",
"filesize": "463469452",
"filename": "1958.27_full.tif"
}
},
"alternate_images": [
{
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1958.27/1958.27_alt0_web.jpg",
"width": "1032",
"height": "893",
"filesize": "843504"
},
"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1958.27/1958.27_alt0_print.jpg",
"width": "3400",
"height": "2943",
"filesize": "8537139"
},
"full": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1958.27/1958.27_alt0_full.tif",
"width": "5000",
"height": "4328",
"filesize": "64973848"
},
"date_created": "2007-06-20T15:48:47",
"annotation": ""
},
{
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1958.27/1958.27_alt1_web.jpg",
"width": "1032",
"height": "893",
"filesize": "841709"
},
"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1958.27/1958.27_alt1_print.jpg",
"width": "3400",
"height": "2943",
"filesize": "8287741"
},
"full": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1958.27/1958.27_alt1_full.tif",
"width": "5000",
"height": "4328",
"filesize": "64954804"
},
"annotation": ""
}
],
"creditline": "Bequest of Leonard C. Hanna Jr.",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 135262,
"creators": [
{
"id": 1759,
"description": "Edgar Degas (French, 1834\u20131917)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": "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 \u00c9cole 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, C\u00e9zanne (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.",
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1834",
"death_year": "1917",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1958-11-29T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1887,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "c. 1887\u201389",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [
"Race Horses"
],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-29 06:54:53.232000"
}
}