Gentleman Rider 1866 - 1870

Edgar Degas made this sketch, "Gentleman Rider," with graphite on paper. Degas was a fascinating figure, entrenched in the bourgeois society he both inhabited and critiqued. This sketch offers us a glimpse into the world of horse racing, a popular pastime among the French elite. We see the gentleman rider, a symbol of wealth and leisure, rendered with a certain detachment. Degas's position is interesting. He was friendly with the upper class but he chose subjects from outside of it as well, like dancers and working women. He had a complicated relationship with the representation of women, often depicting them in ways that both revealed and obscured their inner lives. This sketch, with its understated elegance, invites us to reflect on the complexities of class, representation, and the artist's own ambiguous place within the society he depicted. How do we see ourselves reflected in these images of the past, and what do they tell us about the enduring power of social structures?