Ploughing in Nevers
1849
Rosa Bonheur masterfully captures the sheer muscle and grit of rural life in this sweeping Realist landscape. A massive team of Charolais oxen strains against the heavy, freshly turned earth while their handlers guide them under a vast, cloud-dappled sky. Bonheur was a trailblazer who famously secured police permission to wear men's trousers, allowing her to freely roam farms and slaughterhouses to study animal anatomy up close. Her unflinching dedication to capturing the raw power of these beasts made her one of the most celebrated and highest-paid artists of 19th-century France.
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