At the Races in the Countryside

A day at the races becomes something much gentler in this 1869 painting by Edgar Degas. Rather than the excitement of the track, we get a quiet family outing near the French countryside. A man in a top hat holds the reins of his carriage while a woman rests beside him, shading herself and a baby under a soft cream parasol. The horses and jockeys off in the distance barely seem to matter. The real story is the comfortable little group in the foreground, believed to be Degas's friend Paul Valpinçon with his wife and their newborn son.

Though Degas is usually grouped with the Impressionists, he thought of himself more as a Realist and preferred working in the studio, carefully planning every detail. That care shows here in the clever off-center layout. The carriage sits far to the right, giving most of the canvas over to rolling green fields and a wide pale sky, while the horse on the edge gets partly chopped off. This kind of framing came from Degas's love of photography and Japanese prints, and it gives the whole scene a casual, caught-in-passing feel, as if we just happened to look over and spot the family enjoying an ordinary afternoon.