Above is Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's "The Jockey" painting. As you can see, the two are clearly in a race, however the perspective of the painting rests more into the horse, and his display of power. The jockeys are in their stances, looking like normal jockeys and are not the focus. However the horses both have heads down, and the leftmost horse has his legs ready to hit the ground to gain more speed. You can see the muscles of its legs emphasized with the most detail, and this gives a very real, very intense feel to the piece's meaning. In addition to the power in the legs, the scene is even more epic by how frigidly cold it looks outside, however the horses are still performing at maximum potential.
interesting painting you've chosen to interpret. i've seen several of toulouse-latrec's paintings, but i've never seen this one. he usually would paint scenes from bars, restaurants, or bedrooms. this one is different. great choice.
ReplyDeleteI love the perspective on this one! Like Mrs. Barker, I have never seen this painting of his and am more used to seeing images of dancers and bar scenes than horse races. Lautrec is excellent at using color to emphasize things from a scene.
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