id: 135262 accession number: 1958.27 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1958.27 updated: 2025-04-29 11:06:19.783000 Before the Race, c. 1887–89. Edgar Degas (French, 1834–1917). 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 title: Before the Race title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1887–89 creation date earliest: 1887 creation date latest: 1889 current location: creditline: Bequest of Leonard C. Hanna Jr. copyright: --- culture: France, 19th century technique: pastel with charcoal underdrawing on tracing paper mounted on cardboard 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, lower right, in black pastel: 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, Cleveland, OH (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: Time Stands Still: Muybridge and the Instantaneous Photography Movement opening date: 2004-02-15T00:00:00 Time Stands Still: Muybridge and the Instantaneous Photography Movement. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 15-May 16, 2004). 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, Cleveland, OH (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, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 19, 2016-March 19, 2017). title: Nineteenth-Century French Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2023-01-19T05:00:00 Nineteenth-Century French Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 20-June 11, 2023). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * {'description': 'Exposition du pastel français du XVIIe siècle à nos jours. André J. Seligmann, Paris (November 18–December 9, 1933).', 'opening_date': '1933-12-09T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'Masterpieces of Art, New York World’s Fair. New York (May–October, 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–May 14, 1949).', 'opening_date': '1949-05-14T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'Edgar Degas: Pastelle, Ölskizzen, Zeichnungen. Kunsthalle Tübingen (January 14–March 25, 1984); Nationalgalerie Berlin (April 5–May 20, 1984).', 'opening_date': '1984-03-25T00:00:00'} --- PROVENANCE Henry Lerolle [1848–1929], Paris date: by 1918-after 1933 footnotes: citations: (Hector Brame, Paris) date: ?-? footnotes: citations: (César M. de Hauke, New York) date: ?-? footnotes: citations: (Jacques Seligmann, New York, sold to Leonard C. Hanna, Jr., Cleveland, OH) date: after 1933-1939 footnotes: citations: Leonard C. Hanna Jr. [1889–1957], Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art date: 1939-1958 footnotes: citations: Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1958- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- 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: Pach, Walter. Catalogue of European & American Paintings, 1500–1900. Exh. cat. New York: World’s Fair, 1940. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 185, no. 269 url: Lemoisne, Paul André. Degas et son œuvre. Paris: Brame et de Hauke, 1946. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: vol. 3, pp. 428-29, 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: Pierre Tisné, 1957. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: 117, no. 107. url: Seligman, Germain. Merchants of Art: 1880–1960, Eighty Years of Professional Collecting. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1961. page number: Reproduced: pl. 76b 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: pp. 119–20, 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 Bell, Clive. The French Impressionists. New York: Phaidon, 1978. page number: Mentioned: p. 3; Reproduced: pl. 20 url: Lister, Ron. Drawing with Pastels. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1982. page number: Reproduced: p. 10 url: Borowitz, Helen O. “The Rembrandt and Monet of Marcel Proust.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 70, no. 2 (February 1983): 73–95. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 84-85, fig. 10 url: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25159803 Gotz, Adriani. Degas Pastels, Oil Sketches, Drawings. Exh. cat. Tübingen: Kunsthalle, 1984. page number: Mentioned: p. 380, no. 148; Reproduced: pl. 148 url: 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: 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: Gordon, Robert and Andrew Forge. Degas. 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 url: Pickvance, Ronald. Degas. Exh. cat. Martigny: Fondation Pierre Gianadda, 1993. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 35 url: 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: 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: Impressionist and Modern Works on Paper. New York: Christie's, 2007. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 18 url: 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 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: Barbe-Gall, Françoise, and Edgar Degas. Pourquoi Degas est Degas. Paris: Éditions Le Deuxième Horizon, 2019. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 58-59 url: Lerolle, Aggy. Henry Lerolle: Paris 1848-1929. Willaupuis, Belgium: Wapica; Paris: Société des Amis d'Henry Lerolle, 2022. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: P. 78-79 url: "Drawn to Excellence." Fine Art Connoisseur 20, no. 1 (January/February 2023): 90. page number: Reproduced: P. 90 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