At first glance the interaction in The Parade (Racehorses before the Stands) (1869-1872) seems much like that of Before the Race: quite and controlled. It is important, however, to consider the composition, as it points the viewer to a very important interaction and a much different reality. The diagonals formed by the row of horses on the right and the stands on the left bring the attention of the viewer to a focal point in the distance: the jockey who was lost control. Unlike Before the Race, where the troubled interaction between horse and jockey is present but somewhat understated, Degas has consciously increased the focus on the lack of control in the interaction between the horse and rider in the distance by explicitly drawing the viewer’s attention to it. And this interaction is clearly difficult, even alarming. The horse is almost exploding away from the jockey: its legs are sprawled out as it leaps away from its master. The jockey himself is clearly alarmed, as he is standing up in his stir-ups, pulling with the strength of his entire body in a feeble attempt to control his wild steed. Moreover, the behavior of the horse in the back not only immediately threatens the jockey on its back but also all the others. As the critic Robert Herbert suggests, “Its dash to the rear…threatens the sense of control which the other jockeys preserve over their other animals” (Herbert, 162). As Herbert suggests, the movement of the horse in the rear is very important not only to the “sense of control” of its own jockey but also to all of the others. Thus, as The Parade demonstrates, Degas resented the domination of horse by rider.
Images:
Degas, Edgar. The Parade (Racehorses before the Stands), 1899-1872. Musee d’Orsay, Paris.