id: 149096 accession number: 1977.3 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1977.3 updated: 2023-03-11 20:51:08.218000 Stag Lying Down, c. 1875–85. Rosa Bonheur (French, 1822–1899). Watercolor and gouache over graphite on cream wove paper; sheet: 28 x 38.1 cm (11 x 15 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, James Parmelee Fund 1977.3 title: Stag Lying Down title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1875–85 creation date earliest: 1870 creation date latest: 1890 current location: 101B Prints & Drawings creditline: James Parmelee Fund copyright: --- culture: France, 19th century technique: watercolor and gouache over graphite on cream wove paper department: Drawings collection: DR - French type: Drawing find spot: catalogue raisonne: Roger-Milés 934 --- CREATORS * Rosa Bonheur (French, 1822–1899) - artist The eldest of four children, Rosa Bonheur received drawing lessons in the studio of her father, Raymond Bonheur (1796-1849). From early on she pre-ferred to draw animals and went to the Jardin des Plantes in Paris to study and draw them. She first exhibited at the Salon of 1841. The family moved to the suburbs where Bonheur had an even more easy access to animals, and she visited slaughterhouses in order to study their anatomy. Her Salon submissions became increasingly successful, but her first major breakthrough occurred with Plowing in the Nivernais (Salon 1849, Musée National du Château, Fontainebleau). Based on Sand's rustic novel La mare au Diable (1846), the work represents a heroic depiction of rural life that Bonheur had elevated to the standards of a history painting. Her international reputation was established with The Horse Fair (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), presented at the Salon of 1853. She celebrated her final triumph at the 1855 Salon with Haymaking in the Auvergne (R. W. Norton Art Gallery, Shreveport, La.), after which she increasingly withdrew from public life. She mostly worked on her many commissions and shared her life with Nathalie Micas. The couple traveled extensively, and in 1859 Bonheur bought the Château de By in Thomery near Fontainebleau, where they lived in relative solitude. Bonheur had also little contact with the nearby group of Barbizon painters. The widespread appreciation for her work did not diminish, however, and in 1865 Empress Eugénie visited her studio in order to award her a knighthood in the Legion of Honor, making her the first woman to carry that title. Nathalie Micas died in 1889, to Bonheur's great distress, but she soon befriended the American painter Anna Klumpke (1856-1942), with whom she would eventually live and who became her biographer. Even though Bonheur was appreciated in France, her principal collectors were in England and the United States. According to Albert Wolff, she was "one of the three most highly priced French painters in America . . . the other two [were] Jules Breton [q.v.] and Meissonier [q.v.]"1 Bonheur was one of the foremost animaliers, or animal painters, of her time and was also active as a sculptor. Her painting style changed little throughout her career, and her work found little esteem with more pro-gressive artists and critics. However, her unorthodox life as an independent and successful woman in a male-dominated society has recently generated great interest, especially among feminist art historians. 1. Le Figaro (11 July 1890), 1. --- measurements: Sheet: 28 x 38.1 cm (11 x 15 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: description: cream(3) wove paper watermarks: inscriptions: inscription: stamped, in black ink, at lower right: artist's estate stamp [Lugt 274] translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Year in Review: 1977 opening date: 1977-12-28T05:00:00 Year in Review: 1977. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 28, 1977-January 22, 1978). title: French Drawings from the Collection opening date: 1994-12-13T05:00:00 French Drawings from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 13, 1994-March 12, 1995). title: Nineteenth-Century French Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2023-01-20T05:00:00 Nineteenth-Century French Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 20-April 30, 2023). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * Non-Dissenters: Fifth Exhibition. Shepherd Gallery, New York (November 1–December 31, 1976). --- PROVENANCE studio of the artist [1822-1899] date: c. 1860-1899 footnotes: citations: (her sale, Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, June 5-8, 1900, no. 934) date: 1900 footnotes: citations: (Gerald Norman Gallery, London, sold to Shepherd Gallery, New York) date: footnotes: citations: (Shepherd Gallery, New York, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH) date: ?-1977 footnotes: citations: Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1977- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: Bonheur constructed a park to house a stag named Jacques, whom she kept as a pet and model. digital description: wall description: This drawing was among many representing stags that were discovered in Rosa Bonheur’s studio after her death. One of the few women of her time who was given the support needed for an artistic career, Bonheur became famous during her lifetime for naturalistic portrayals of animals. Daily carriage rides through the forest around her home enabled her to sketch from nature. One such outing inspired Cleveland’s drawing: Bonheur’s companion recalled “a stag . . . with the sun playing on him through the leaves . . . [who] remained perfectly still.” Watercolor was ideal for such improvisatory studies, allowing Bonheur to work outdoors alongside the subjects she treasured. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Roger-Milès, M. L[éon]. Atelier Rosa Bonheur. Paris: Georges Petit, 1900. page number: Mentioned: vol. 2, p. 11, no. 934 url: Stanton, Theodore. Reminiscences of Rosa Bonheur. New York: Hacker, 1976. page number: Mentioned: p. 299 url: Non-Dissenters: Fifth Exhibition. Exh. cat. New York: Shepherd Gallery, 1976. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: no. 16 url: Klumpke, Anna. Rosa Bonheur: The Artist’s (Auto)biography. Translated by Gretchen van Slyke. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1997. page number: Mentioned: p. 280 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1977.3/1977.3_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1977.3/1977.3_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1977.3/1977.3_full.tif