Edgar Degas (1834-1917)

Degas first produced sculptures of horses in wax and clay in the late 1860s, deriving the theme from racing scenes, which he had begun to paint earlier in the decade. He once remarked to the critic François Thiébault-Sisson that, in his desire 'to achieve exactitude so perfect in the representation of animals that a feeling of life is conveyed, one had to go into three dimensions' (quoted in R. Kendall, Degas: Beyond Impressionism, exh. cat., London, 1996, p. 255).

Cast from the wax original which is now at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Etude de mustang was the earliest of fifteen horses discovered in the artist's studio and almost certainly one of the first of the artist's sculptures. The present work exquisitely combines Degas's search for naturalism while also achieving classical balance. In the recently published catalogue of Degas' works at the Norton Simon Museum, a relationship is suggested between the present work and the artist's painting Semiramis Building Babylon from 1861 (Musée d'Orsay). 'Degas may have attempted to render an exotic physiognomy in keeping with the setting of Semiramis Building Babylon by modeling a distinctive muzzle, perhaps a stylized Roman nose. The horse's classical stance, also derived from classical antiquity, recalls that of the standing horse in the painting' (D. Barbour & S. Sturman, 'The Modèle Bronzes', in Degas in the Norton Simon Museum, Nineteenth Century Art, vol. II, New Haven & London, 2009, p. 223). However, there is further argument that the title 'Mustang' may also have been chosen to appeal to romantic nineteenth century French sensibilities about the endangered American wild west (ibid, p. 224).