| The Horse Fair | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Rosa Bonheur |
| Year | 1852–55 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 244.5 cm × 506.7 cm (96.3 in × 199.5 in) |
| Location | Metropolitan Museum of Art,New York |
The Horse Fair is an oil-on-canvas painting by French artistRosa Bonheur, begun in 1852 and first exhibited at theParis Salon of 1853. Bonheur added some finishing touches in 1855. The large work measures 96.25 in × 199.5 in (244.5 cm × 506.7 cm).[1]
The painting depicts dealers selling horses at the horse market held on theBoulevard de l'Hôpital inParis. The hospital ofSalpêtrière can be seen in the left background.
Theprime version of the painting has been in the collection of theMetropolitan Museum of Art in New York since 1887, when it was donated byCornelius Vanderbilt II. It is on view in Gallery 812. A smaller version is on display at theNational Gallery in London.[2]
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Bonheur painted 'The Horse Fair' from a series of sketches ofPercherons, and otherdraft horses, which she had made at theParis horse market [fr] on the tree-linedBoulevard de l'Hôpital, near thePitié-Salpêtrière Hospital,[3] which is visible in the background to the painting. She attended the market twice weekly for a year and a half from summer of 1850 to the end of 1851. She sought apermission de travestissement [fr] from theParis police to dress as a man, to avoid drawing attention to herself.[1] She had earlier studied at a Parisslaughterhouse in 1845, a typical activity for ananimal painter that she was the first woman to engage in, and had experienced harassment as a visible woman.[4][self-published source]
In addition to studies at the Paris horse market, she also modeled her animals on those from theParis Omnibus Company.[4] She broke from tradition in depicting thehorse eye as it is, rather than usinganthropomorphism for emotional effect.[5] It has been suggested that one of the human figures is a self-portrait.
Bonheur routinely wore masculine clothes at home and in the country.The Horse Fair is printed as Plate 18 inGermaine Greer's bookThe Obstacle Race, in which she writes: "There was nothing titillating about the full trousers and painters' smocks that Bonheur wore", and quotes the artist herself as saying:
Among the influences on Bonheur's work are the paintersGeorge Stubbs,Théodore Géricault, andEugène Delacroix, and sculpture fromAncient Greece. She described the painting as her ownParthenon Frieze. It is signed and dated, "Rosa Bonheur 1853.5".
The painting was praised by the critics when it was first exhibited at theParis Salon in May 1853. Several commented on the masculine nature of the work. Earlier, Bonheur had offered studies of two paintings to French Minister of Fine ArtsCharles de Morny, Duke of Morny, for consideration of a state commission. He selected the other work,Haymaking in the Auvergne, now held by the museum at theChâteau de Fontainebleau. Bonheur rejected his attempt to change his mind after the 1853 exhibition.
The painting was subsequently shown in Ghent in 1853 and then in Bordeaux in 1854, but the city declined to buy it forFF 15,000. It was sold to the British art dealerErnest Gambart in 1854 forFF 40,000. Bonheur added finishing touches in 1855.
It was shown at various locations during a tour of Britain in 1855 to 1857. In London, the painting was shown in the home ofEdwin Henry Landseer, the artist well known for his works on animals.[7]Queen Victoria requested a private viewing atBuckingham Palace. It was the most acclaimed of Bonheur's works, and is described by the Metropolitan Museum as one of its best-known works of art.
It was sold to cotton traderWilliam Parkinson Wright in 1857 forFF 30,000, and then sold toAlexander Turney Stewart in 1866. After the deaths of Stewart in 1876 and of his widow Cornelia in 1886, the painting was bought at auction byCornelius Vanderbilt II for $53,000 in March 1887, and immediately donated to theMetropolitan Museum of Art in New York.[1][8]
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The first engraving of the work was made byJules Jacques Veyrassat during the Paris Salon of 1853, while the often-reproduced engraving byThomas Landseer helped it achieve a wide popularity. Landseer's engraving was based on a half-size replica, 48 in × 100 in (120 cm × 250 cm), c.1855, by Bonheur and her partnerNathalie Micas, which was donated to theNational Gallery in London in 1859 from the estate ofJacob Bell.[1][9]
Bonheur also made a second half-size replica, which she preferred, formerly in the collection of the McConnel family (owners of a cotton mill inCressbrook, Derbyshire) and in the collection of Jack Wheeler by 1989, when it was exhibited atMeadows Museum in Dallas; and a third half-size replica made for Commander Arthur Hill Ommanney Peter Hill-Lowe RN in Somerset (first husband ofBeatrice Hill-Lowe) was sold at Sotheby's in 1978, and is now in a private collection inBaton Rouge. A fourth much smaller version, 19 in × 35 in (48 cm × 89 cm) was in the private collection ofKarl Lowenstein. An autograph watercolour version 24 in × 50 in (61 cm × 127 cm) dated 1867 was sold by Sotheby's in New York in 2007.[10] A similar watercolour version was sold byKnoedler in 1982.
PainterMolly Luce claimed thatThe Horse Fair was the first work which influenced her in her decision to become an artist,[11] and the work also inspired a youngWayne Thiebaud.[12][13]
In the literary world,The Horse Fair inspired a 2000 anthology by poetRobin Becker.[14][15]
The painting, with its large scale,realistic style, and strong sense of movement, can be consideredproto-cinematic.[5][16][17]
Bonheur's brother,Isidore Bonheur, cast a bronze relief plaque based on the painting for her monument at Fontainebleau. The memorial included a large statue of a bull, on a pedestal with four relief plaques reproducing her most popular paintings; it was destroyed in 1941, but a cast of the plaque is held by theDahesh Museum of Art in New York.[18]
