Racehorses

An animal named by its job

The title is one word, and that word is a job description. A racehorse is not a kind of animal in any sense this catalogue would assert; it is an animal in a role, kept and conditioned for one. Naming a picture this way puts the function in the foreground and leaves out everything else, including the course, the race, the riders and the result.

What the record holds

The date of creation is 1884 and the location line reads Private Collection. No measurements are given at all, a blank shared with 253 records here, so the dimensions are not recorded. Impressionism is the style term on the record and French the nationality; the measured colour family of the image is ochre. Rural, vintage and eco-nature headings accompany Animal Art > Horse.

What this site will not say

Breed is the obvious thing to reach for under a title like this one, and it is the thing these pages refuse. A record of this kind carries no examination, no standard and no authority to make that call, so no breed is named anywhere on this site. What can be said is functional: an animal kept for racing was selected and conditioned for a task, and a picture filed under that task is showing the task.