Les Courses – The Races at Longchamps

 

Manet_LesCourses

Edouard Manet

1832 – Paris – 1883

Les Courses a Longchamps– The Races at Longchamps 1864

lithograph on chine appliqué;

chine: 404 x 517 mm (15 7/8 x 20 5/16 inches)

Moreau-Nélaton 85; Guérin 72; Wilson-Bareau (1977) 66; Wilson-Bareau (1978) 76; Fisher 56; Harris 41 second state (of three)

 

provenance

Robert M. Light & Co., Inc., Boston

Carolyn and George Rowland, Boston (acquired in 1972)

 

Paul Sachs in his Modern Prints and Drawings asks: “Why is this scribble, done in fever heat, important enough to reproduce? Because an impression of a shifting scene has rarely, if ever, been better rendered in black and white; because the excitement of the race track is made so vivid that we want to shout and bet on the winner; because the significance of movement is stressed; and finally because there is present in the skillful rendering of the agitated scene a quality that is of importance in a work of art: complete consistency of treatment.