Throughout the latter half of his career, Degas was obsessed with the restless beauty of the thoroughbred racehorse. Given his commitment to representing modern life, horse racing, which drew together throngs of people from various levels of society, was a singularly appropriate subject. Degas typically painted several versions of a composition, making slight variations in each. Here, a number of riders and horses are shown in varying poses of quiet and agitated movement. The pigment is so thinly laid down that the grain of the wood is clearly visible. Degas allows the composition to respond to the lines of the wood grain and the sheen of its surface. By the 1880s, Degas was probably aware of Eadweard Muybridge’s stop-action photographs, which captured movement too fleeting to be perceived by the naked eye and which increased the artist’s understanding of the horse in motion, as is evident in the convincing naturalism of their varied positions.

Odilon Redon (French, 1840–1916) Etruscan Vase with Flowers, 1900–10 Tempera on canvas; 32 x 23 1/4 in. (81.3 x 59.1 cm) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Maria DeWitt Jesup Fund, 1951; acquired from The Museum of Modern Art, Lillie P. Bliss Collection (53.140.5) Information about more than 130,000 works of art is available in The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Collection Database . Photograph Credits Copyright

Wearing Blanket, 1860–1870 Navajo United States, Arizona Wool; H. 69 x W. 48 x D. 69 in. (175.3 x 121.9 x 175.3 cm) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Bequest of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979 (1979.206.1039) Information about more than 130,000 works of art is available in The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Collection Database . Photograph Credits Copyright

Wearing Blanket, 1860–1870 Navajo United States, Arizona Wool; H. 69 x W. 48 x D. 69 in. (175.3 x 121.9 x 175.3 cm) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Bequest of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979 (1979.206.1039) Information about more than 130,000 works of art is available in The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Collection Database . Photograph Credits Copyright

This wonderfully flamboyant design is close to the model on the title page of the second part of Hans Collaert’s stunning series of pendant designs published in Antwerp in 1582: “Virtuosic Designs for Golden Ornaments.” In the engraving, it is the god Apollo riding a sea monster, but the similarities remain strong.