Rosa Bonheur, 'The Horse Fair', 1855

The Horse Fair

Rosa Bonheur

Room 13 Stairs

About the work

Overview

This is a painting of sheer animal power. Brilliant white light builds up the turbulence and excitement of the scene. Rosa Bonheur has made the convulsion of the muscles and the flying manes almost tangible, capturing the rearing, plunging animals and the strength and dexterity of their handlers with almost photographic reality. The magnificent white horses in the picture are Percherons, bred for hauling weights. Bonheur has captured their spirit and their world, with its noises, smells and sense of danger, and made them into high art.

The original version of The Horse Fair was four times the size of the National Gallery picture, painted when the work of women artists was largely disregarded by critics. It caused a sensation at the 1853 Paris Salon, toured Britain and the US and brought Bonheur international fame. This smaller autograph version was painted to facilitate the making of prints for sale during the tour.

In-depth

This monumental painting depicts sheer animal power. Brilliant light builds up the turbulence and excitement of the scene, and creates a sheen across the horses’ enormous rumps. Rosa Bonheur has made the convulsion of their muscles and their flying manes almost tangible, capturing the rearing, plunging animals and the strength and dexterity of their handlers with almost photographic reality. But she has also captured their spirit and their world, with its noises, smells and sense of danger, and made them into high art.

The diagonal avenue of trees diminishing in size from right to left establishes the extent of the market and leads to the dome of the Asylum of la Salpêtrière in the distance. Horse fairs were held in the Boulevard de l’Hôpital in Paris twice weekly, and for over a year Bonheur attended them, making sketches and absorbing the atmosphere. The magnificent dappled white animals here are Percherons, the strongest kind of horse bred for hauling weights. Bonheur recorded how handlers would manoeuvre their horses into forceful movement so as to demonstrate their strength and mobility to prospective buyers. But we don’t see any buyers in this picture, so the scene appears more wild and uncontrolled than it may have been in reality – although it was enough for Bonheur to apply for a ‘permission de travestissement’ from the local police. This gave her permission to wear men’s clothes, which she afterwards wrote was ‘a protection to me – avoiding disagreeable comments from the company… they took me for a little lad.’

While at the horse fair, Bonheur was reminded of the casts she had seen of the marble frieze created to decorate the Parthenon, an ancient Greek temple dedicated to Athena. It shows strong warriors controlling rearing horses, but Bonheur wanted not to imitate them but to interpret them. She also studied the work of Théodore Géricault, a painter of a generation earlier who often depicted horses in traumatic situations and who was the first French artist to visit horse fairs and slaughterhouses. His Horse Frightened by Lightning is also in the National Gallery’s collection.

The original painting of The Horse Fair was almost four times as large as this version, causing a sensation at the 1853 Paris Salon. It remained Bonheur’s largest and most ambitious work and is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. This original image brought fame to the artist, at a time when the work of women artists was largely disregarded by critics and collectors alike. She was a well-known and successful ‘animalier’, or animal painter, before the original version of The Horse Fair was painted, but when that work toured Britain and the US she became an international celebrity.

Bonheur was asked to produce a smaller version to facilitate the making of prints for sale, and some years later the picture was bequeathed to the National Gallery. Unhappy with its condition she offered to make yet another version, but the National Gallery was unable to accept it for legal reasons. Bonheur restored the picture instead, signing it as her own – it is this painting you see in the Gallery today.

Audio description

4 min 25 sec
Listen to an audio description of Rosa Bonheur's 'The Horse Fair'

Transcript

This is a description of 'The Horse Fair' by Rosa Bonheur, painted in 1855. It is oil on canvas, 120 cm high and just over two and half metres wide, in landscape orientation. Around the painting is a wide gilded wooden frame, about a hands length in width, with thick relief entwined vines.

This is a noisy scene, full of excitement. Earthy tones dominate, with the feel of a crisp autumnal morning, as about 15 horses rear, gallop and plunge, moving left to right across the middle of the painting. They are brown, black and dappled white, their handlers, in blue or white shirts, riding them, or leading them on foot, sometimes struggling to control them.

The show is for us, as if we are the prospective buyers of these horses. The dappled white horses are Percherons, the strongest of them all. They have glossy sun-kissed coats, knotted tails, and muscular bodies. All the horses have been portrayed with fine brushwork, showing the details of their hair and muscle tone.

The top left corner of the painting is filled with a triangle of white fluffy clouded sky, dappled with sunlight and small patches of fresh bright blue, painted in bold vigorous strokes. This reaches 3 quarters along the top of the painting and about halfway down the left-hand side.

Behind the horses, in the mid-ground, is a bank of trees, dark green with tones of yellow and burnt umber, painted with a more stippled effect. On the far right, close examination reveals a grassy bank with people sitting and standing, watching from among the trees. On the left, in the far distance, is the dark grey domed roof and turret of a building, the Asylum of la Salpêtrière.

The foreground is painted in broad rough brushstrokes in browns and greys to convey the dry, dusty, earthen ground, with dark grey shadows from the horses.

In the centre of the painting one of the black horses rears up on its powerful hindquarters, the blue-shirted rider hanging on defiantly, one arm lifted to balance him. A white horse alongside, slightly behind, attempts the same, but because of the proximity is un-able to complete the move, resulting in a near collision. This is avoided by the moustachioed handler who is on foot, holding its bridle. Nearer to us, a smaller, riderless, chestnut brown horse, attempts to dash past the spectacle. Towards the left of the painting, a dark brown pony saunters along, led by its handler in dark brown trousers, and a white shirt undone to the navel, under an open

waistcoat. Behind them, two men struggle to control one of the white horses, both holding the bridle.

The spirit of the animal’s strength and presence, conveyed in this painting, engages us in the dangerous flurry. For over a year Bonheur attended the Horse fairs held in the Boulevard de l’Hôpital in Paris twice weekly, making sketches and absorbing the atmosphere. She applied for a ‘permission de travestissement’ from the local police so she could wear men’s clothes. This was a protective measure, avoiding unwanted male attention. She said, ‘they took me for a little lad.’

This painting is not the original, which is almost four times bigger and hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The painting brought fame to the artist at a time when the work of women was largely disregarded. Due to its popularity, Bonheur was asked to paint this smaller version to facilitate the making of prints to sell.

Key facts

Details

Full title: The Horse Fair
Artist: Rosa Bonheur
Artist dates: 1822 - 1899
Date made: 1855
Medium and support: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 120 × 254.6 cm
Inscription summary: Signed
Acquisition credit: Bequeathed by Jacob Bell, 1859
Inventory number: NG621
Location: Room 13 Stairs
Collection: Main Collection
Previous owners: Jacob Bell
Frame: 19th-century French Frame (original frame)

Provenance

Painted for Ernest Gambart, for the use of the engraver Thomas Landseer; sold by August 1855 to Jacob Bell. Exhibited, together with the original version, in Bond St. in 1857; exhibited at the Marylebone Literary and Scientific Institution, March/April 1859 (No. 4). Bequeathed by Jacob Bell, 1859; picture delivered, 1865. For a time, at the Tate Gallery; transferred 1956.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Martin Davies, with additions and some revisions by Cecil Gould, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: French School: Early 19th Century, Impressionists, Post-Impressionists, etc.’, London 1970; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2022

Rosa Bonheur (1822 - 1899)

Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux

18 May 2022 - 18 September 2022

Musée d'Orsay

17 October 2022 - 15 January 2023

Bibliography

1857

J.S., The Critic Foiled at Rosa Bonheur's Great Horse Fair, n.p. 1857
1857

'The Picture of "The Horse Fair" by Rosa Bonheur Now Exhibiting in Bond Street', Art Journal, 1857
1859

'The Marylebone Literary Institution', Art Journal, 1859
1865

E. Gambart, 'Letter', The Times, 1865
1889

R. Peyrol, 'Rosa Bonheur', Art Annual, 1889
1900

L. Roger-Milès, Rosa Bonheur, Paris 1900
1904

F. Hird, Rosa Bonheur, London 1904
1908

A. Klumpke, Rosa Bonheur: Sa vie, son oeuvre, Paris 1908
1957

Martin Davies, National Gallery Catalogues: French School, 2nd edn (revised), London 1957
1966

C. Sterling and M. Salinger, French Paintings. A Catalogue of the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 1966
1970

Davies, Martin, and Cecil Gould, National Gallery Catalogues: French School: Early 19th Century, Impressionists, Post-Impressionists etc., London 1970
1975

J. Maas, Gambart: Prince of the Victorian Art World, London 1975
1976

T. Stanton (ed.), Reminiscences of Rosa Bonheur, New York 1976
1981

D. Ashton, Rosa Bonheur: A Life and a Legend, London 1981
1982

J. Fletcher et al., The Women's Art Show 1550-1970 (exh. cat. Nottingham Castle Museum, 1982), Nottingham 1982
1993

K. Heise, Bilder aus der neuen und alten Welt: Die Sammlung des Diamantenhändlers Ludwig Nissen (exh. cat. Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landesmuseum, Kloster Cismar, 27 June - 24 October 1993; Nissen-Haus, Nordfriesisches Museum, 7 November 1993 - 7 January 1994), Schleswig 1993
1993

W. Chadwick, 'The Fine Art of Gentling: Horses, Women and Rosa Bonheur in Victorian England', in K. Adler and M. Pointon (eds), The Body Imaged. The Human Form and Visual Culture since the Renaissance, Cambridge 1993, pp. 89ff
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001

About this record

If you know more about this work or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

Images

Rosa Bonheur's hidden self portrait

Artist Rosa Bonheur wore trousers, didn't ride side saddle and lived with her female partner, Nathalie Micas, in 19th-century France. She also painted a self portrait into the middle of one of her most spectacular works, 'The Horse Fair'.

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