Edgar Degas (1834–1917)
Study for “Scene from the Steeplechase: The Fallen Jockey,” 1866
Black and dark-brown chalks with stumping on blued white wove paper
9 1/8 x 14 1/8 in. (23.2 x 35.9 cm)
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts, 1955.1397
Degas made this drawing in preparation for a painting now in the National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.), in which a jockey falls from his horse during a steeplechase — a challenging event requiring horse and rider to leap over various obstacles. The horse’s tail and the stirrup swing backward as the animal flies through the air.