Existing comment:
Pierre Bonnard
Under Starter's Orders (At the Races), ca 1911
The subject of horse racing has a long tradition in French art beginning in the 19th century with Theodore Gericault, one of whose masterworks in this genre, Mounted Jockey, is also in the Mellon Collection. The other French artist most connected with racing and horses is Edgar Degas, also represented by important works in the Mellon Collection. Unlike these two artists, Bonnard did not see the races in terms of the private relationship of horse and rider but as a gaudy public event. He tellingly placed as much emphasis on the fashionable spectators in the foreground as on the start of the race itself. |