Before the Race

A pair of jockeys holds their restless mounts back behind the starting line, the sharp profile of one horse cutting across the pale sky. Degas drew the racing scenes that occupied him throughout his career in the medium he had made almost entirely his own in the 1880s — pastel, applied here over a charcoal underdrawing to build velvety zones of dun, chestnut, and grey. The compressed composition and cropped figures show how thoroughly he absorbed the lessons of Japanese prints and photography into his handling of the turf.