Cheval à l'abreuvoir

The naturalistically rendered Cheval l'abreuvoir is traditionally dated to 1866- 68, making it one of Edgar Degas' earliest surviving sculptures. This dating is based upon the similarity of the horse's pose and the slope of the ground to that which appears in his important painting Mademoiselle Fiocre dans le ballet 'La Source', a picture often considered one of Degas' earliest depictions of the ballet. Featuring the titular subject sitting by a pool next to a horse, this work was first exhibited at the Salon of 1868. As Ann Dumas has observed, however, a number of drawings that appear to be connected with the wax model for this bronze date from the early 1860s and may indicate that the sculpture precedes the painting and perhaps even served as a model for the horse in it (see A. Dumas, 'Degas: Sculptor/Painter', in J.C. Czestochowski & A. Pingeot, Degas Sculptures, A Catalogue Raisonné, Memphis, 2002, p. 40). Daphne Barbour and Shelley Sturman also believe that Cheval à l'abreuvoir predates the painting but suggest that its careful construction, elaborately modelled surface and finely incised lines articulating the horse's mane, signal that it is a highly finished work rather than a model.
In his review of the painting Mademoiselle Fiocre dans le ballet 'La Source', Èmile Zola wrote of the horse's 'magnificent' coat (Zola, quoted in J. Sutherland Boggs, Degas at the Races, exh. cat., Washington, 1998, p. 34). This is no less true of the present sculpture, where attention has been lavished upon the horse's anatomy and flesh. In this, and in its restrained, sedate pose, Cheval à l'abreuvoir provides a fascinating contrast to his later studies of horses in motion. This masterfully naturalistic rendition of the horse contrasts with the severe realism of the academic equine sculptures Degas would have seen at the Salon.