Scene from the Steeplechase: The Fallen Jockey is an 1866 oil-on-canvas painting by Edgar Degas which he later reworked at least three times, notably in 1880–81 and again c. 1897. The model for the fallen jockey was Edgar's brother Achille.[1][2] The model for the bearded rider in the red cap was Edgar's good friend Ludovic-Napoléon Lepic.[3]
Degas exhibited the painting in the Paris Salon of 1866. Afterward, he brought the painting back to his studio and resumed work on it. In 1880 he reworked it again with the intention of selling it to Alexander Cassatt (brother of the painter Mary Cassatt), but was not satisfied with the result and did not sell the painting.[4] The composition was more extensively altered in the mid-1890s but the work remained in the artist's studio until his death. According to Mary Cassatt's mother, Katherine Cassatt, Degas said of the painting: "It is one of those works which are sold after a man’s death and artists buy them not caring whether they are finished or not."[4][5][6]
