The Jockey, Edgar Degas, c. 1885–1900
Edgar Degas, portraitEdgar DegasFrench, 1834–1917

The Jockey

c. 1885–1900 · Drawing

Can I see it?

Not on view at present

Where is “The Jockey” now? Collection: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland. Not on view at present. Checked September 29, 2026.

The Cleveland Museum of Art

Cleveland, United States

It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.

Checked
In this state since
Source
The museum

About the work

A study made for a larger racetrack composition rendered in pastel, Degas’s Jockey shows the attention that the artist lavished on perfecting the positions of the horse’s legs, hoofs, jaw straining against the bit, and the swish of the tail.

The Cleveland Museum of Art

Details

Accession number
1927.301

In the catalog

Sources

In the life of Edgar Degas

The whole life
  1. 1886

    The eighth exhibition: pastel nudes, and the end of the group

    At the last Impressionist exhibition Degas showed a suite of pastel nudes, which drew more critical writing than anything else in his lifetime, mostly laudatory. The group broke up, partly through rancour over the inclusion of non-Impressionists such as Forain and Raffaëlli.

  2. after 1886

    Into the shadows: he stops exhibiting

    After 1886 Degas stopped exhibiting and sold his pictures at high prices through a narrow circle of agents. By the end of the decade he had in effect fulfilled his wish to be “famous and unknown”, withdrawing among close friends.

  3. late 1880s

    A passion for photography

    Degas photographed his friends, often by lamplight, as in the double portrait of Renoir and Mallarmé. Photographs of dancers and nudes served as references for his drawings and paintings.

  4. 1890s

    The Dreyfus Affair: a break with his Jewish friends

    The Dreyfus Affair intensified Degas's antisemitism: by the mid-1890s he had broken with all his Jewish friends and refused to use models he thought might be Jewish; the affair also set him at odds with Mary Cassatt. He remained among the Anti-Dreyfusards until his death.

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On view at The Cleveland Museum of Art

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