Horse and Rider

Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas was a renaissance artist living in the nineteenth century, who handily mastered multiple media. In addition to a strong collection of the artist's paintings, drawings, prints, photographs and sculpture, the Fogg owns several Degas monotypes of figures and of landscapes. Indeed, the museum hosted an exhibition on the topic of these rare unique impressions in 1968. The Biddle work shows a horse and its rider from the rear, one of the artist's prevalent themes. The image is truncated at the top, emphasizing the mount over its rider. Degas catches the animal in mid-stride-as if it is about to canter out of the picture plane, an impression that is only exaggerated by the free delineation of both figures.