The Race Trackc. 1891
At the edge of a racecourse, a man in a top hat and long coat talks with a woman in pink and a man in riding boots and breeches, while riders gallop away across the green turf and spectators watch under parasols. More about this work
About this work
At the edge of a racecourse, a man in a top hat and long coat talks with a woman in pink and a man in riding boots and breeches, while riders gallop away across the green turf and spectators watch under parasols. Forain, best known as a satirist of Parisian society, shared with his friend Degas a fascination with the races, where fashion, money and sport met. Painted in gouache on canvas, the scene has a quick, sketchy freshness, with short overlapping strokes that blur the landscape into a summer haze.
Written by Ochre Editions.
What you’re looking at
This painting depicts a wide, grassy green field with distant green hills under a blue sky with fluffy white clouds. To the right of center, two men and one woman seem to be engaged in conversation. One man wears a dark suit with a long jacket over it and a top hat, and the other man wears a red shirt with tan breeches, tall black boots, a shorter brown coat, and a round hat. The woman wears a long pink dress with a ruffled black neckline and a large pink hat. Behind them, on the left, are four people riding horses, all headed towards the back left. On the far left, more men and women in dresses and suits seem to watch as the horses and riders race by, one woman holding a large white parasol. All of the people appear to have light skin, and their facial features are indistinct. The brushstrokes in the painting are loose and visible, and the landscape and sky are painted with short, overlapping lines going in different directions, giving the scene a hazy impression.
Description from the National Gallery of Art.
How it was made
- Opaque watercolour
- Watercolour made opaque with white or chalk and laid in flat, even layers. Persian and Indian painters ground their colours from minerals, applied them with the finest brushes and burnished the finished page.
Jean Louis Forain
French, 1852–1931
Forain was a friend and follower of Degas and showed in four of the Impressionist exhibitions. He became best known as a caricaturist, contributing incisive drawings to the Paris press that mocked the bourgeoisie, the courts and politics, often with sharp captions. His paintings and pastels return to Degas’s subjects – backstage at the opera, the racecourse, the café – and his later work turned to courtroom and religious themes.
Written by Ochre Editions.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The National Gallery of Art has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 1985.64.18
- Credit
- Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
- Type
- Painting
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
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