Detail of Racecourse: Amateur Jockeys by Degas in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, December 2023

Title: The Racecourse, Amateur Jockeys

Artist: Edgar Degas (French, Paris 1834–1917 Paris)

Date: 1876–87

Culture: French

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 25 11/16 × 31 15/16 in. (65.2 × 81.2 cm)
Framed: 35 1/4 × 41 3/4 in. (89.6 × 106 cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: Musée d'Orsay, Paris (RF 1980)


Although his paintings appear to have been made en plein air, outdoors and on the spot, Degas was known to labor over his work in the studio, sometimes even for decades. The artist may have taken almost thirteen years to execute this ambitious painting. It was commissioned by the opera singer Jean-Baptiste Faure, who was an avid collector of Manet’s work. The composition presents an unusual mix of rural landscape and populated sporting scene, separated by a train billowing smoke.


Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/851715