Bronze
Tate Collection
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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/edgar-degas-988" aria-label="More by Edgar Degas" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Edgar Degas</a>
Horse Clearing an Obstacle
Presented by the Art Fund 1952
animals: actions
animals: mammals
horse
leaping
<p>Unlike many of his fellow Impressionists, Degas did not depict the pastoral delights of outdoor leisure pursuits, such as boating or picnics, or practise landscape painting as an end in itself. He chose instead to concentrate on the seamier sides of life, making down-to-earth paintings of laundresses, ballet dancers and women at their toilet. He also executed a number of works on the themes of horses and horse-racing. From about 1880, when his eyesight was failing. Degas turned to making sculptures on a relatively small scale. This particular work, together with a number of other bronzes of horses, is thought to have been inspired by the photographs of Eadweard Muybridge showing horses in motion.</p><p><em>Gallery label, September 2004</em></p>
sculpture bronze
10 April 2010 – 7 June 2011
2011-06-07
8 September 2010 – 16 January 2011
2011-01-16
2010-09-08
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2010-04-10
Eadweard Muybridge
Exhibition
Horse Clearing an Obstacle
object: 305 × 387 × 241 mm
Presented by the <a href="/search?gid=999999968" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Art Fund</a> 1952
<p>Unlike many of his fellow <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/i/impressionism" title="Glossary definition for 'Impressionism'"><span>Impressionists</span></a>, Degas did not depict the pastoral delights of outdoor leisure pursuits, such as boating or picnics, or practise <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/l/landscape" title="Glossary definition for 'Landscape'"><span>landscape</span></a> <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> as an end in itself. He chose instead to concentrate on the seamier sides of life, making down-to-earth paintings of laundresses, ballet dancers and women at their toilet. He also executed a number of works on the themes of horses and horse-racing. From about 1880, when his eyesight was failing. Degas turned to making <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/sculpture" title="Glossary definition for 'Sculpture'"><span>sculptures</span></a> on a relatively small scale. This particular work, together with a number of other <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/m/metal" title="Glossary definition for 'Metal'"><span>bronzes</span></a> of horses, is thought to have been inspired by the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/photograph" title="Glossary definition for 'Photograph'"><span>photographs</span></a> of Eadweard Muybridge showing horses in motion.</p>
Display caption
2004-09-03T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>Edgar Degas</b><span> 1834-1917 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/degas-horse-clearing-an-obstacle-n06072" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N06072</span></a> </span><b>Cheval s'enlevant sur l'Obstacle</b><span> (Horse clearing an Obstacle) </span><i>c</i><span>.1887-9 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>Stamped 'Degas', '48/T' and founder's stamp 'CIRE | PERDUE | A.A. HÉBRARD' on base</span>
<br/><span>Bronze, 12 1/8 x 15 1/4 x 9 3/8 (31 x 38.5 x 23.7), the depth being that of the metal base</span>
<br/><span>Purchased from Marlborough Fine Art (Grant-in-Aid) with the aid of the NACF 1952</span>
<br/><i>Prov:</i><span>
Puvis de Chavannes, Paris (son-in-law of Mme Hébrard); with Marlborough Fine Art, London</span>
<br/><i>Lit: </i><span>Paul-André Lemoisne, 'Les Statuettes de Degas' in </span><i>Art et Décoration</i><span>, XXVI, 1919, pp.110-11; John Rewald, 'Degas Dancers and Horses' in </span><i>Art News</i><span>, XLIII, 1944, pp.21-2; John Rewald, </span><i>Degas: Works in Sculpture</i><span> (New York 1944), No.IX, pp.4-6, 20, repr. p.43; Marcel Guérin (ed.), </span><i>Edgar Germain Hilaire Degas: Letters</i><span> (Oxford 1947), No.3, p.124; Paul Valéry, </span><i>Degas Danse Dessin</i><span> (Paris 1949), p.64; John Rewald, </span><i>Degas: Sculpture</i><span> (London 1957), No.IX, pp.14-16, 142, repr. pls.10-11, and fig.4; Aaron Scharf, </span><i>Art and Photography</i><span> (London 1968), pp.158-60; Michèle Beaulieu, 'Les Sculptures de Degas: Essai de Chronologie' in </span><i>Revue du Louvre</i><span>, XIX, No.6, 1969, p.372; Charles W. Millard, </span><i>The Sculpture of Edgar Degas</i><span> (Princeton 1976), pp.4-6, 20-3, 40, 59, 100, wax repr. pl.66</span>
<br/><i>Repr:</i><span>
Herbert Read, </span><i>The Art of Sculpture</i><span>
(London 1956), pl.192 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>Degas' interest in the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/sculpture" title="Glossary definition for 'Sculpture'"><span>sculpture</span></a> of horses (connected with his interest in racecourse scenes) is said by Lemoisne to have been stimulated by the example of his friend the animal sculptor Joseph Cuvelier, who exhibited <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/m/metal" title="Glossary definition for 'Metal'"><span>bronzes</span></a> of horses at the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/salon" title="Glossary definition for 'Salon'"><span>Salon</span></a> between 1865 and 1870. However Lemoisne's further suggestion that he stopped making sculpture of horses after Cuvelier's death in the Franco-Prussian War is certainly incorrect, as he is said by Paul Valéry and others to have been influenced by the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/photograph" title="Glossary definition for 'Photograph'"><span>photographs</span></a> of horses in motion taken by Eadweard Muybridge, which did not become known in France until after 1878. His sculpture of a 'Horse trotting' (Rewald No.XI), for instance, seems to have been inspired by Muybridge's photographs of 'The Trot', first published in France in 1881, which proved for the first time that at certain phases of the trot none of the horse's hooves touches the ground. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>Charles W. Millard, who believes that Degas probably did not begin making sculpture until the 1870s, has suggested that his earliest sculptures of horses, made before about 1881, include 'Horse standing'; 'Mustang'; 'Horse walking' (No.X); 'Horse at Trough'; 'Thoroughbred'; and 'Horse walking' (No.IV), in roughly that order. This gives a progression from less to more '<a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/i/impasto" title="Glossary definition for 'Impasto'"><span>painterly</span></a>', and from less to more movemented. In addition, Aaron Scharf has pointed out that several of Degas' <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawings</span></a> in <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/charcoal" title="Glossary definition for 'Charcoal'"><span>charcoal</span></a> and <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/pastel" title="Glossary definition for 'Pastel'"><span>pastel</span></a> are literal transcriptions of the horse Annie G., to be found in volume nine of </span><i>Animal Locomotion</i><span>, Muybridge's most extensive collection of consecutive series photographs published considerably later, in 1887, and that some of Degas' sculpted horses also relate closely to other photographs in </span><i>Animal Locomotion</i><span>. Degas' remark 'I have not yet done enough horses' written to his friend the sculptor Bartholomé in or about 1888 may have been connected with his interest in this new publication. The present work would appear to have been based on Muybridge's photographs of 'The Leap', and can probably be dated about 1887-9. Millard suggests that the later horse sculptures were made in the years 1881-90, in roughly the following order: 'Draught Horse'; 'Horse with Head lowered'; 'Horse galloping' (No.VI); 'Horse galloping' (Nos.XIV-XV); 'Horse galloping, Feet not touching the Ground'; 'Horse trotting'; 'Horse clearing an Obstacle'; 'Rearing Horse'; and 'Prancing Horse', with a development from less to more movemented poses, in which case this would have been one of the last. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>The original of this work is in yellow wax; a piece of wire shows in the tail. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/><span>Ronald Alley, </span><i>Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists</i><span>, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, pp.152-3, reproduced p.152</span>
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-15T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
animals: actions animals: mammals horse leaping