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The Races at Longchamp
Artist	Édouard Manet
Year	1866
Medium	oil on canvas
Dimensions	84.5 cm × 43.9 cm (33.3 in × 17.3 in)
Location	Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

The Races at Longchamp is an 1866 painting by the French artist Édouard Manet. The Impressionist painting depicts the ending of the Second Grand Prix de Paris at Longchamp. It is currently conserved at the Art Institute of Chicago. This painting is one of four versions of the work created by Manet over four-years, all of which are slight variations of the others. The painting corresponds with the rise of horse racing in France brought upon by British influence.

The work was the first painting ever to present horses coming toward the viewer and uses various tools to reduce the sense of depth. It also includes references to Frith's The Derby Day and Manet's wife and was created using loose brushstrokes. About the painting, the Art Institute of Chicago said it "is startling. We find ourselves on the racecourse with a cluster of onrushing horses and jockeys bearing directly down on us. With a few judicious exceptions—the vertical starting post left of center; the crisp rectangle of the viewing-stand roof at the right—everything is blurred, a device that heightens the sense of explosive movement of the galloping horses."

Background

Rise of Horse Racing in France

A sketch of Manet at Longchamp by Degas

Before the 1830s, horses' only use in French society was for royal hunts, parades, or fairs. But in the 1830s, horse racing began to take hold, primarily due to the influence of the British. Many French emigrés who had left during Napoleon's reign and were returning after the Battle of Waterloo had stayed in Britain during their leave and returned with a newfound love of horse racing, which was already strong in Britain among the upper class. Napoleon III, who would begin his reign in 1842 and strongly influence the nation, also grew up in Britain and brought home an interest in horse racing with him. Finally, many British businessmen at the time were living in French cities, including Paris, and were leaving their impression on French social life. They began creating clubs in France, including "The Society for encouraging the improvement of horse breeding in France," or as they are more well known, "The Jockey Club." This group would be a major part of the creation of Longchamp.

Creation and Significance of the Hippodrome de Longchamp

As Napoleon III was considering plans for the Bois de Boulogne, he was approached by the Jockey Club to consider a racetrack as part of the park. Previously, the club's only tracks were lower tier, and they recognized the benefits that a new track presented to them and France. Charles de Morny, later duc de Morny, was a powerful member of the club and was the leading creator of the plans for Longchamp. Napoleon, who was fond of horse racing, was eager to agree to Morny's plan, realizing that it would bring them closer to the status of Britain and create another public attraction.

Paris would continue to own the land the track would be on and pay for the changes made to the ground to make it suitable for racing. The Jockey Club would put their resources towards the racecourse infrastructure, such as the stands, and received a fifty-year lease with annual rent. The building was done somewhat poorly, but the course was eventually opened in 1857.

Longchamp quickly became well known and was a popular spot for those in the upper class to visit. While its most popular times were during racing season, from April to September, it was still visited outside of these times for social events. Most visitors did not follow the races closely, just using the pretext of the race to socialize with other upper class members. This included artists such as Manet and Degas, who had friends in the upper class and spent their time painting the scenes around them. Degas even sketched Manet at Longchamp. The Jockey Club put together races such as the Grand Prix and paid out the rewards to the winning horses, often using money raised by outside sources. For example, the first Grand Prix in 1863 was funded by both Paris and the five main rail companies in France.

Manet and Horse Racing

Favorite of the 1864 Grand Prix, Blair Athol

A major desire for horse racing art arose from wealthy British men asking for pieces based on horses and races that had won them money through gambling. Prints of these works would inevitably reach France, which would provide inspiration to Manet, proven by comments left in his notebooks acknowledging the prints. Manet's first full horse race painting was Les Courses de Chantilly, created in 1864. But prior to this, there is evidence of Manet sketching race scenes in his notebooks, such as in a notebook dated 1855. These sketches were primarily a study of the crowd at the racecourse or the scenery behind it, not the race itself. Manet probably drew these sketches at a lower-tier race course since the angle they were drawn at was from on the course. Manet most likely started working on Longchamp while working on Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe, which likely inspired the composition of Longchamp.

The Second Running of the Grand Prix de Paris

On Sunday, June 5th, 1864, the second running of the Grand Prix de Paris was held at Longchamp. The first Grand Prix the year prior saw an English horse win the race. A hundred thousand Parisians, including Manet, watched the 1864 race unfold as the favorite, Blair Athol, an English horse, raced against the local star Vermouth. Blair had won the 1964 Epsom Derby and was a 2-1 favorite at post-time. But Blair never led and Vermouth won by two full-lengths. This race would be the setting of Manet's painting.

Description and Analysis

Manet's Wife at the bottom left of the paitning

The most noteworthy detail of this work is of the six horses racing toward the viewer, which was done here for the first time. Before this, horse racing was only shown from the side, and Manet himself would go back to this in 1972 in his work The Races in the Bois de Boulogne. Wilson-Bareau of the Art Institute of Chicago notes that this presentation of the horses makes them appear "as if exploding from a distant mass of trees in the background." The viewer, who seems to be standing on the track, is set facing south, which points towards Saint-Cloud.

The pole with the circle atop it is the race's finish line, which serves an important role for Manet. Wilson-Bareau comments that "A sweep of green hills high up on the canvas, on the distant horizon, is “pinned” to the foreground and the picture plane by the circular top of a furlong marker on the track," which reduced the perceived depth of the work. Manet further manipulates the depth of the work, according to Cachin, by creating "an effect analagous to that of a photographer telescoping toward a subject with a zoom lens; the area in focus grows in proportion to the framing edges, and the depth of field decreases."

William Frith's The Derby Day

While both sides show the crowd paying full attention to the race, the left side of the painting depicts the wealthier part of the crowd, which is clearer than the crowd on the right side. Multiple details stick out to a viewer about the crowd. First, in the bottom left, there are two women spectators that are clear to the viewer. The second woman in beige is Manet's wife, Suzanne Leenhoff, who had also modeled for Manet in previous portraits. Further in the background, a man is standing holding binoculars, watching the race. This man is taken straight from William Frith's The Derby Day, where he can also be seen holding binoculars towards the middle of the work. Finally, a pink banner can be seen in the back, flying over the crowd.

On the right side of the painting, a rectangular building hangs over part of the crowd which was the Tribune Publique. This building catches the viewers' eye, "emphasizing the flatness of the canvas yet also the sense of speed, recession, and limitless space," according to Wilson-Bareau.

Finally, Manet constructed the work using very loose brushstrokes, which can be analyzed further on different pieces of the work. The track the horses run on is created of mostly horizontal strokes, the same as the top of the hill. The rest of the hill is constructed of diagonal strokes, as are the two full trees, the large one directly behind the horses. The thinner trees and the fence are mainly vertical strokes. And the sky and crowd are both made of various dabs of paint.

Versions

1864 Painting

This was the original painting Manet made of Longchamp and is believed to have been submitted by him to an 1865 exhibition hosted by an art dealer Louis Martinet. However, there is a debate not only over if it was displayed but even over whether it was ever submitted. In a letter, Manet told Martinet he would send nine works, but he only ever sent six works, and only two were displayed, which Manet did not appreciate. While many have suspected that this painting was part of those two, there is no proof that it was even sent, let alone displayed. Manet cut the painting up in 1865, which could have been after he got it back from the exhibition or before he even sent it. Only two pieces of the cut up composition remain today.

1864 Watercolor

1864 Watercolor

The timing of this work is also unclear, as there are two main theories that historians believe. This work could have been done before the 1864 painting to assist Manet in completing that work or after it in an attempt to preserve the work. The watercolor is made up of two separate sheets joined together, with the right sheet correlating with the Chicago painting quite strongly. The work is currently held at the Fogg Art Museum.

Chicago Oil Painting

The oil painting held at the Art Institute of Chicago is the most commonly known version of the work and was created in 1866. While there had been debate about its creation date due to the smudging of the numbers on the work, with some arguing it was 1865 or 1867, a microscopic examination of the work was held, and it was determined the work was made in 1866. The relationship of this work to the other versions is also unsolved and has led to disagreements among art historians. Art historian Theodore Reff writes, "Although [this painting] shows the most important section of the large composition he exhibited in 1865, it cannot actually belong to it; it is painted in a more vigorous, sketchy style than the surviving two fragments, and it includes at the lower left two female spectators very close to those shown in one of the fragments." Reff further concludes that the work must have been done in preparation for the 1867 painting as both shared a one to two scale. But Jean Harris claims that this work, "must be a further reworking of the right section of the original [1864] painting" done by a "desire for simplification and unification."

1867 Painting

This work was a piece of the 1864 painting and was displayed by Manet at his own shown in 1867. However, this painting has been lost, with the last known sighting of it being in 1871 in Manet's studio.

Reception

After the painting's release, most critics and viewers did not particularly like the work. They saw it as just a sketch, including journalist Joséphin Péladan, who in 1884 claimed that it was a "nice sketch, one that could be a painting." However, since then, it has been widely accepted as a finished painting.