In Chantilly, artists are in the starting blocks portraying the races of yesteryear

With the complicity of Swiss watchmaker Longines, the Domaine de Chantilly unveils the works of artists passionate about equestrian sports to the point of painting them. At the end of the 19th century, Edouard Manet, George Stubbs, Gustave Moreau, Pierre Vernet, Théodore Géricault and Edgar Degas created paintings featuring racing horses with their jockeys.

Painting the Races, an arty homage to Chantilly

This infatuation took place in the wake of an Anglomania transfer on the subject in France, when the taste for the performances of thoroughbreds on the race track appeared in the Hexagon, at the end of the 18th century. It continued to develop amongst the entourage of the Duc d’Orléans and the Comte d’Artois, before spreading like wildfire in the entire country after the Restauration.

In his paniting representing « The Parade », Edgar Degas interests himself just as much in the horses on the track as in the crowds. © Hervé Lewandowski

The portrait of Assheton, 1st Viscount Curzon with his mare Maria, by George Stubbs, combines the art of portrait and landscape. © Gérard Blot

An aesthetical approach of the races

In this pictorial domain, just like technicians for clockmaking, painters were inspired by traditions to imagine this new school. In Chantilly, the exhibition « Painting the Races » offers to visitors an aesthetical approach to horse racing, by reproducing their visions of this universe. A full recognition of this central role played by the « Cité du Cheval »…

As a horse painter, Alfred de Dreux presented his scenography through the movement of the mounts. © Jean-Gilles Berizzi