Racehorses before the Stands

The stands are half the subject

A racecourse picture is a picture of an institution as much as of an animal. The title puts racehorses in front of the stands, which means the audience, the enclosure and the business of the meeting are in the frame alongside the runners. In this class of work the horse is doing paid competitive work in front of paying spectators, and painters were as interested in the waiting, the parading and the milling about as in the race itself.

What the record holds

The catalogue gives 1872 as the date of creation and the Musee d'Orsay in Paris as the location. No dimensions are recorded for this work; the field is empty and this entry leaves it empty. Impressionism is the recorded style and French the nationality attached to the painter. Alongside Animal Art > Horse the record carries landscape and urban categories, which is consistent with a built racecourse rather than open country. The measured colour family of the image is yellow.

Where this sits in the register

Grouped by function, this belongs with the other turf entries here — the start, the false start, the fall, the parade — rather than with the equestrian portraits it shares a century with. Those pictures are about rank. This one is about a fixture.