Studio Interior with "The Steeplechase"

A picture whose subject is another picture

The title names a studio and, inside it, a canvas: a steeplechase. That puts the animal at one remove. Nothing in this work is a horse doing a job; what is present, according to the title, is a painting of a horse doing a job, standing in a room where paintings are made. It is the only position in this register where the animal's function is not equestrian at all but professional — the racing subject as stock-in-trade, seen from behind the counter.

What the record holds

The catalogue gives 1881 as the date of creation and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem as the location. No dimensions are recorded; the field is empty and this entry supplies nothing in its place. Impressionism is the style term and French the nationality attached to the painter. The record files the work under Animal Art and Animal Art > Horse and adds a Vintage heading, and the measured colour families of the image are brown and red.

The steeplechase in this catalogue

This register separately holds a steeplechase subject by the same painter, dated 1866, showing a fallen jockey. The two entries are fifteen years apart in the record. Whether the canvas named in this title is that work is not something the catalogue states, and this entry does not assume it.