Racehorses in a Landscape

A group of jockeys sits mounted on their horses in an open meadow, pausing before a stretch of hills rendered in soft purple and blue tones beneath a pale, quiet sky. The scene belongs to a pastel on paper titled Racehorses in a Landscape, made in 1894, now held at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum. It is a work of landscape painting by Edgar Degas (1834–1917), a French artist associated with Impressionism who also created The Ballet Class. The riders and their mounts appear small against the wide stretch of grass, giving the distant forested hills a dominant, atmospheric presence over the entire composition. The muted blues and purples of the hills contrast gently with the pale tone of the sky, lending the whole field a calm, hazy stillness that draws attention to the quiet distance behind the figures.