Accueil > Le Haras national du Pin se dévoile > Artistes > Painters
    

The Stud, a place of creation

Singers, artists

Painters

Edgar Degas

As of 1861, Edgar Degas came to the Orne county several years running to stay with friends, the Valpinçon family, at the Ménil-Hubert-en-Exmes Château, not far from the “Haras du Pin”.  Paul Valpinçon was in fact a childhood friend of the painter.
Degas thus discovered Le Pin National Stud and the importance of the horse in the region, a symbol of the Orne landscape.  In his notebooks, we witness not only the National Stud, but also many a horse in the area, in addition to the racecourses of Le Pin and Argentan.
Degas, renowned for his horse and dancer illustrations, it is to wonder whether his interest for the horse would have been quite so intense had he not stayed in the Orne on many occasions?
The question is indeed worth posing, when considering the study and research conducted throughout his life with regard to the horse.  Already, at the age of 27, when only in the beginnings of his career, Edgar Degas visited the Orne county for the first time.
With 38 of Edgar Degas notebooks being available, we find, in notebook 18, illustrations of the “Haras du Pin” and the neighbouring village of Exmes.  This notebook served as sketchbook, address book and working album.  In his landscapes and illustrations of Le Pin National Stud, the sketches are basically in brown ink, such lines sometimes gone over again in brown and grey wash-paint.

Below are 3 pages extracted from the no. 18 notebook of Edgar Degas (copyright BnF)

1st Page: text and lower sketch, no doubt referring to the village of Exmes
“A walk at the Haras du Pin// La Garenne – came off the Argentan road and took / with Paul [Valpinçon, former classmate and loyal friend of Degas] a straight line towards Exmes. // Exactly like England, large and small Fields, surrounded entirely by hedges.  Damp footpaths, ponds, / greenery and shady ground.  This is quite / new to me, since in St Valéry, I find the countryside: much less luscious and bushy than here.//  Continuously going up and down green humps. / Arrived in an almost flooded track.  A footpath / nevertheless having no access to the steep slop.  I am reminded of those painting backgrounds by English geniuses, such as the Gate / or the rider’s shadow, the wolf and the lamb, etc. / Completely in the undergrowth.  Crossed small farms. / arrived on the estate of Mr Leriche.  Currently, / I am reading Tom Jones and nothing provides a better background / to all these characters.  Climbed up to Exmes. // This is indeed a kind of honest village with its church / and its red-brick houses.  Beneath, meadows, such as the / foreground.  I think of Mr Soutzo, and of Corot.  They alone / would make this quite interesting.”
“Exmes, the old Church.  How can one live there? / along undulating and woody footpaths – after half / an hour, suddenly opening out into a fenced avenue.  The beginning of Autumn.”

2nd Page: the text continues with a sketch of Louis 14th Avenue and the Château of the National Stud in the background.

“The dead leaves crunch underfoot.  We expect to / see horses emerge at any minute. // Suddenly, we arrive in a vast avenue that / leads up to the château.  It is Maisons-Lafitte avenue.”

“The Stud dates back to Louis 15th.  In the foreground, two accommodation / areas, just like the stables in Versailles.”

 
 
 

3rd Page: text and probably a sketch made from the terraces of Le Pin Château.
“From the terrace behind the château, view of the countryside / so similar to those colourful English racecourses and hunting scenes.” 
 
 
Texts and notes: Catalogue entitled, "Degas: Form and Space”, Marais Cultural Centre, Paris, 1994, according to “The Notebooks of Edgar Degas”, Theodore Reff, Oxford, 1976.

 

Raoul Dufy

Raoul Dufy was born in Le Havre and started working at a young age in a coffee-importing company, though finding time to follow evening classes at the Beaux-Arts School run by the Town Council, where he became friendly with Othon Friesz.
In the autumn-winter of 1939~40, Dufy came to the Orne county with his brother, Jean, to stay in St-Denis-sur-Sarthon, not far from Alençon.
Two watercolours illustrating Le Pin National Stud are kept at the Museums of Libourne (France) and Baltimore (USA).  The first watercolour dates back to 1939, no doubt painted during Dufy’s stay in the Orne county.
Horse-related themes inspired the painter, having illustrated many a racecourse in both France and England: Deauville, Longchamp, Nice, Ascot, Epsom, Goodwood.

Excerpts from the French catalogue "Orne, land of artists", Jean ARPENTINIER, Museum of Beaux-Arts and of Lace, Alençon, 1999

DUFY, "Haras du Pin", oil on canvas, 1939, MNAM, J.Faujour-RMN

André Mare

Born in 1885 in Argentan, Orne county, tribute was paid to this painter-decorator (skilled in furniture art as practised with the Company of French Arts) during the 2005 exhibition entitled, “André MARE, to the sources of Cubism and Art Deco”, held at the Museum of Beaux-Arts and Lace in Alençon.  Aside from the Art Deco touch, André Mare devoted the last few years of his career solely to painting.
By illustrating the “Haras du Pin”, André MARE, himself an excellent rider, confirmed his interest for horses, placing them in the foreground and relegating the buildings of Le Pin to the rear, using a simplified style, such as adopted by the artist in the period subsequent to 1921.

Excerpts from a note by Aude PESSEY-LUX, Curator of the Museum of Beaux-Arts and Lace in Alençon

MARE, "Haras du Pin", oil on canvas, 1924, Modern Art Museum, Troyes, G.Blot-RMN