Horse with Head Lowered 1878 - 1920

Edgar Degas made this horse in bronze, a material historically loaded with significance. Traditionally, bronze was associated with grand, public sculpture – a mode of production which required a team of skilled laborers working in foundries. Yet, look closely, and you'll see that Degas has handled the material in a manner that defies this history. Rather than a smooth, idealized surface, he’s left the bronze roughly worked, with visible marks of his own hand. There’s an immediacy here, almost as if the sculpture was shaped from clay. This tension is key to understanding Degas’s achievement. He's taking a material associated with high art and imbuing it with the sensibility of a more intimate, hands-on practice. In doing so, he challenges the traditional hierarchies between fine art and craft, elevating the value of process and the artist’s touch. He is more interested in the animal's anatomy and movement, than in the social position of the material.