The Races at Longchamp  1866

With a characteristic focus on the pleasures of modern life, Édouard Manet depicted this scene of the racetrack in the Bois de Boulogne, on the western outskirts of Paris. The popularity of Longchamp, where races were run for the first time in 1857, signaled a general revival in French horse racing. This painting records the last moments of a race, as the horses rush past ...