Manet, Édouard (1832-1883)
Les Courses à Longchamp (The Races at Longchamp)
1866
Oil on canvas, 44 × 84.2 cm
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
With a characteristic focus on the pleasures of modern life, Édouard Manet depicted this scene of the racetrack in the Bois de Boulogne, on the western outskirts of Paris. The popularity of Longchamp, where races were run for the first time in 1857, signaled a general revival in French horse racing. This painting records the last moments of a race, as the horses rush past the finish line, indicated by the pole with a circular top. Unlike traditional sporting artists, who always showed races from the side, Manet dared to compose the scene so that the throng of horses and jockeys thunders straight toward the viewer. (AIC)