Edgar Degas’s desire to capture the fleeting moment in a painting is best served by horse races and dancing, his two great motifs. In this endeavour Degas was entirely an Impressionist, although he always bridled at the label.
While Edouard Manet gives us the race itself, Degas focuses on jockeys warming up their mounts before the event begins. This moment inspired him with its variety of gaits and multiple perspectives on the horses. The movements and attitudes of his human subjects are clearly drawn, and the picture seems conceived as a snapshot. The burgeoning technique of photography played a significant role in the representation of dynamic processes and new points of view. The section of horse’s tail at the painting’s right edge, cut off on the left, conveys a cinematic rhythm. In this pastel Degas further studies the problems of the movement and grouping of figures in space and on the surface of an image. The two horses to the fore emphasize the severity of the composition, with the landscape arranged in parallel with the perspective. The animals’ spontaneous movement, which coalesces into a single form in the background, provides a suspenseful contrast. Degas enhances the natural rhythm with the glowing colours used for his jockeys.
The painter’s growing preoccupation with horse races during the early 1860s may have had to do with a sojourn in England. Degas subscribes wholly to the contemporary demand for motifs drawn from modern life, such as the leisure pastimes of the metropolitan middle class. The theme of the horse race can be found throughout all of his work in the seventies and eighties. Around the middle of the nineties his interest in the subject began to wane, as Degas, whose eyesight had been failing since 1880, went almost totally blind.
- Title: At the Races
- Creator: Edgar Degas
- Creator Lifespan: 1834 – 1917
- Creator Death Place: Paris
- Creator Birth Place: Paris
- Date Created: c. 1885/1887
- Physical Dimensions: 42,5 x 49,5 cm
- Type: painting
- Medium: Pastel over graphite pencil on paper, mounted on cardboard
- Art Movement: Impressionism
- Original title: Sur le champ de courses
- Inventory number: 1995/0001
- Credit line: Collection of Prints and Drawings, Donated by Walter Haefner, 1995
DecorArts is a professional wall art company located in California.
Each of our prints is proudly designed and constructed in the USA, right in our workshop. We are dedicated to delivering the finest quality, craftsmanship, and customer service with each and every order. With giclée printing technology, we are able to provide the best possible quality for the reproduction of fine art masterpieces as well as your personal photos. Our prints capture the subtlest of colors and contrasts, while retaining superb image sharpness.
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Giclée Quality Guarantee:
Giclée printing is meant to produce a product at a higher quality and longer lifespan than a standard desktop inkjet printer. The word was used to describe digital reproductions of conventional artworks (painting or drawing) or photographs.
There are at least three basic criteria which must be met in order for the print to be considered a true giclée...
- For giclée printing, the paper or substrate used to actually print the final piece must be acid free and consist of a 100% cotton base.
- Any image that is to be printed as a giclée needs to be created at a resolution of no less than 300 dots per inch (DPI). This is to ensure that the final print has the sharpest detail and lacks any of the fragmentation that can occur with images less than 300 DPI.
- The last step to creating or confirming a true giclée print is the type of ink and printer used. The biggest contrast between a standard inkjet print and a giclée print is that giclées are printed using pigment-based inks rather than the dye-based inks found in lower cost inkjets. Pigment-based inks have a longer life span that can last anywhere from 100 to 200 years without significant fading.
The Quality :
The quality of the giclée print rivals traditional silver halide and gelatin printing processes and is commonly found in museums, art galleries, and photographic galleries.
With Giclée printing technology, we are able to provide the best possible quality for the reproduction of fine art masterpieces as well as your personal photos. Our prints capture the subtlest of colors and contrasts, while retaining superb image sharpness.
- We use real wood (non-MDF) for our canvas stretcher bars
- The canvas depth of of each dimension will be 1.5" thick
All of our canvas prints are gallery wrapped. Your image will be visible in full on the front side of the canvas while the outer edges are either artistically extended or mirrored to wrap over the wood stretcher bars on all sides. Our canvases are hand-stretched over solid wood stretcher bars.
Our canvas art works arrive ready to hang right out the box! We will affix a sturdy sawtooth hanger to the back of your canvas and include in your package: two screws, two nails, a pair of gloves, and a gradienter (small water level to ensure art is hung straight).
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Our frames are specifically chosen to complement each artwork. However, we will gladly accommodate if you'd prefer a different frame. Contact us at customerservice@decorarts.com for inquiries.
