Detail of Races in the Bois de Boulogne by Manet in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, December 2023

Title: The Races in the Bois de Boulogne

Artist: Edouard Manet (French, Paris 1832–1883 Paris)

Date: 1872

Culture: French

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 28 3/4 × 37 in. (73 × 94 cm)
Framed: 41 1/8 × 48 1/16 × 4 1/2 in. (104.5 × 122 × 11.5 cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: Private collection


Étienne Moreau-Nélaton, a champion of Manet’s art and a collector who owned, among other works, his Déjeuner sur l’herbe, pointed out that the artist owed his interest in the subject of the racetrack to Degas. Degas’s drawing of Manet at the races, shown in this gallery, confirms that the two artists were there together. Manet may have corroborated this evidence; the spectator in the top hat at the bottom edge of this painting is possibly Degas.


Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/851694