At the Races, Longchamp

A racecourse seen from the crowd

Longchamp is a racecourse, and the title places the picture at a meeting there. What separates this entry from the turf portraits in this register is where the attention sits. A commissioned racing portrait is organised around one animal; a picture called At the Races is organised around the occasion, with the runners as one element of a social event that also includes the spectators. The record supports that reading: group portraiture is among its categories.

What the record holds

The catalogue gives 1894 as the date of creation and a private collection as the location. The dimensions are 39.3 x 37.9 cm, very nearly square and small enough to be a cabinet picture. Post-Impressionism is the style term recorded and French the nationality attached to the painter. Landscape and rural categories accompany Animal Art > Horse, and the measured colour families of the image are green and yellow.

The horse's job in a picture like this

Competitive, but at a distance. In racecourse pictures of the 1890s the animal is often one incident among many rather than the centre of the design, and the subject shades from sport towards the modern crowd. This register still files it under racing, because that is what the animals in it are there to do.