The Races
1865
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
About the artist
Artist
Edouard Manet
Édouard Manet didn’t have much time to make his mark—he died at 51—but he used every year.
See the richer artist page1865
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
The Races is a 1865 by Edouard Manet, a Impressionism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
This painting shows a chaotic scene of horses and riders racing across a track. The quick, rough lines make the whole thing feel wild and fast. Manet used a printmaking trick called lithography here. It lets artists draw with greasy crayons on stone. Lithography was new and edgy in the 1860s. The loose style feels almost modern, like it could fit in a 1920s magazine ad. Manet wasn’t copying the race exactly. He wanted the buzz and energy of the moment. If this bold style grabs you, look up lithography.
The Races is based on Manet's painting The Races at Longchamp . The lithograph, however, conveys the excitement of horse racing even more than the painting. Energy and movement are suggested by bold, quickly drawn lines and by rapid, curving smudges. The unrestrained, spontaneous use of the lithographic crayon foreshadows the expressiveness of 20th-century printmaking.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Édouard Manet didn’t have much time to make his mark—he died at 51—but he used every year.
See the richer artist page
