The Horse Fair by Bonheur

The Horse Fair
Artist:  Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899)

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Gift of Cornelius Vanderbilt (1887)

Bonheur's best-known painting shows the Paris horse market on the tree-lined Boulevard de l'Hopital, near the asylum of Salpetriere, visible in the left background.  For a year and a half, Bonheur sketched there two times a week, dressing as a man to discourage attention.  Bonheur was well established as an animal painter when the painting debuted at the Paris Salon of 1853, where it received wide praise.  In arriving at the final scheme, the artist drew inspiration from George Stubbs, Theodore Gericault, Eugene Delacroix, and ancient Greek sculpture.  She referred to The Horse Fair as her own "Parthenon frieze." ~ The Metropolitan Museum of Art at 1000 Fifth Avenue (at 82nd), New York, or online at:  www.metmuseum.org/