The Horse Fair
1852-55
Rosa Bonheur spent months sketching at the Paris horse market just to capture this chaotic energy, even getting special police permission to wear men's trousers so she wouldn't be harassed! The result is a muscular, thundering scene of rearing white and brown horses that feels loud enough to hear the hooves pounding the dirt. It was a radical move for a woman in the 1850s to paint such a rugged subject on such a massive scale, proving her skill as a master of Realism and becoming one of the most famous animal paintings in history.
- Technique
- Oil on canvas
- Material
- Canvas
Location: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Views: 5