Before the Start

Painted in 1879, Before the Start belongs to Degas's sustained engagement with racecourse subjects that he pursued from the 1860s onward. The races at Longchamp and other Parisian tracks represented for Degas what the ballet offered indoors: controlled bodies in a state of concentrated energy, poised between stillness and explosive movement. The moment before a race — nervous horses, tightly wound jockeys, the anticipatory crowd — fascinated him as much as motion itself. In the Bührle Collection, this work demonstrates Degas's ability to capture atmosphere and tension without dramatic action, finding drama in suspended anticipation.

Degas uses a horizontal format to accommodate the sweep of horses and riders, deploying his characteristic high horizon line that flattens space in a manner influenced by Japanese woodblock prints. Figures are captured in arrested motion, each horse and jockey individualized through swift, assured strokes. The color is keyed to cool outdoor light, with the jockeys' colored silks providing punctuating notes of brightness against the green turf.