The False Start, ca. 1869–72
Oil on panel, 12 5/8 x 15 7/8 in. (32.1 x 40.3 cm)
John Hay Whitney, B.A. 1926, M.A. (Hon.) 1956, Collection
1982.111.6
Horse racing fascinated Degas from at least the early 1860s, when depictions of the sport began to form one of the major themes of his oeuvre. Most likely this scene features a summer outing in the provinces rather than in Paris itself, where it was commonplace for large numbers of visitors to be engaged in gambling and riotous behavior. Dominating the foreground is a large, heavily modeled horse that bounds forward, attempting to start the race before the official at right has waved his red flag. Using a range of pictorial strategies to depict a momentary deviation from the normal course of the race, Degas went to considerable lengths to rethink, and even subvert, conventional expectations.
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