The Jockey

The Jockey, painted around 1882 and now at the Yale University Art Gallery, is a focused equestrian figure study from the middle phase of Degas's racecourse imagery. By the early 1880s he had complete mastery of his racecourse subjects, and these single-figure studies — isolating a jockey and horse from the broader context of the race — allowed him to concentrate on the formal and technical challenge of the figure in isolation. The jockey, defined by professional silks, compact posture, and the intimate physical relationship with the horse, was a recurring figure in Degas's visual vocabulary — as characteristic a type as the ballet dancer.

The isolated figure composition places the jockey and horse against a relatively spare setting, forcing the figure to carry the full pictorial weight. Degas's handling of the horse is confident and anatomically assured — the animal's musculature and movement rendered with the authority of decades of study. The jockey's compact silhouette, defined by the horizontal line of the horse's back and the vertical of the raised body, creates a strongly legible compositional unit. The colored silks provide the primary chromatic accent.