At the Races: The Start - Edgar Degas
Archival giclée
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Description
An early work by Edgar Degas capturing the quiet tension of jockeys and horses at the starting line of a race.
Edgar Degas produced this work during his early career, a period when he began to move away from traditional historical subjects to observe contemporary Parisian life. The scene captures the tension and anticipation of a horse race at the starting line. Degas focuses on the jockeys and their mounts, positioning them in the foreground while the spectators and carriages remain in the distance. This compositional choice creates a sense of depth and separates the participants from the crowd.
The painting demonstrates the artist's interest in movement and the specific mechanics of the horse. The horses are rendered with anatomical precision, their muscles and stances reflecting the restless energy of the animals before the race begins. The jockeys, dressed in bright silks, provide a contrast to the muted, overcast sky and the green expanse of the turf. Degas uses a palette dominated by earthy tones, which allows the small splashes of colour in the riders' uniforms to draw the eye.
Unlike later Impressionist works that prioritise light effects, this piece retains a structured, academic approach to form. The influence of photography is evident in the way the scene is cropped, as if the artist has captured a fleeting moment in time. The background figures are painted with looser, more gestural brushwork, which contrasts with the sharper focus on the horses in the front. This work provides an insight into the artist's early fascination with modern leisure activities, a theme he would return to throughout his career in his depictions of the ballet and the theatre.
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Each print is produced to order using 12-colour giclée printing on FSC-certified archival paper. Designed in Britain and printed at your nearest production hub to reduce waste and speed up delivery.
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Museum-grade giclée on FSC-certified archival matte paper, with framed and canvas options.
- Paper sizes: A4, A3, A2, A1, A0 and B2 (50×70 cm)
- Canvas: XS (20×30 cm) to Large (60×90 cm)
- Frames: black, natural wood, dark wood or white
At the Races: The Start - Edgar Degas
Artist Biography
Edgar Degas
More than half of his entire output depicts dancers. He became a fixture at the Paris Opera, watching from the wings and from boxes above the stage, sketching not the performance but the work behind it: the stretching, the waiting, the adjusting of shoes, the corrections from the ballet master. The backstage fatigue interested him more than the applause.
In 1881, he exhibited Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, a two-thirds life-size wax figure of Marie van Goethem, a real student at the Opera ballet school. She wore a real tutu, real ballet slippers, and a wig of human hair, all coated in wax. Critics called it repulsive. One described the girl as having a face marked by the hateful promise of every vice. Wax was a material for anatomical specimens, not art. It was the only sculpture he exhibited in his lifetime. After his death, 150 more wax figures were found in his studio, many falling apart.
His eyesight began failing during the Franco-Prussian War. By his forties he had lost central vision. By fifty-seven he could not read. The deterioration drove him from fine brushwork to bolder strokes, then to pastels, then to sculpture he could work by touch. He avoided daylight and painted under controlled artificial light. Collectors joked they should chain their Degas paintings to the wall, because he would try to take them back to rework them. He compulsively revised everything.
He disliked being called an Impressionist. He preferred Realist or Independent. He never painted outdoors, which was supposedly the whole point of the movement. Despite this, he co-founded the group, organised their exhibitions, and showed in all eight. He said: there is love and there is art and we only have one heart. He never married.
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