id: 166702 accession number: 2008.410 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/2008.410 updated: 2025-01-13 13:07:06.256000 Return from the Horse Fair, 1873. Rosa Bonheur (French, 1822–1899). Watercolor and gouache over graphite; sheet: 25.9 x 56.7 cm (10 3/16 x 22 5/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Muriel Butkin 2008.410 title: Return from the Horse Fair title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1873 creation date earliest: 1873 creation date latest: 1873 current location: creditline: Bequest of Muriel Butkin copyright: --- culture: France, 19th century technique: watercolor and gouache over graphite department: Drawings collection: DR - French type: Drawing find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- 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: 25.9 x 56.7 cm (10 3/16 x 22 5/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: description: beige wove paper, laid down on cardboard watermarks: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin opening date: 2001-08-26T00:00:00 French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 26-October 28, 2001); Dahesh Museum of Art (February 19-May 18, 2002). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * {'description': 'French Nineteenth-Century Drawings, Pastels, and Watercolors. Shepherd Gallery, New York (November 1977-February 1978).', 'opening_date': '1977-11-01T00:00:00'} --- PROVENANCE (Christie, Manson & Wood, London, June 28, 1940, no. 3, sold to Gooden and Fox, London) date: 1940 footnotes: * citations: (Gooden and Fox, London) date: 1940-? footnotes: *
According to annotated 1940 sales catalogue.
citations: Estate of Sir Jeremiah Colman [1859-1942], London date: ?-1955 footnotes: citations: (Christie, Manson, & Wood, London, Colman estate sale, Mar. 25, 1955, no. 2) date: 1955 footnotes: citations: Hentzl, sold to Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge, New York date: ?-? footnotes: *
According to Shepherd Gallery records and label on verso of mount, now removed.
citations: Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge [1882-1973], New York date: ?-1976 footnotes: citations: (Parke-Bernet, New York, May 14, 1976, no. 22, sold to the Shepherd Gallery) date: 1976 footnotes: citations: (Shepherd Gallery, New York, sold to Muriel Butkin, Shaker Heights, OH) date: 1976-1977 footnotes: citations: Muriel Butkin [1916-2008], Shaker Heights, OH, by bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1977-2008 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 2008- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Klumpke, Anna. Rosa Bonheur; sa vie, son œuvre. Paris: Flammarion, 1909. page number: Reproduced: p. 283 url: Christie, Manson & Woods, London. Ancient and Modern Pictures and Drawings. June 28, 1940. Lot 3. page number: Mentioned: no. 3 url: Christie, Manson, & Woods, London. Modern Pictures and Drawings, The Property of Sir Jeremiah Colman. Lot 2. page number: Mentioned: no. 2 url: Stanton, Theodore, ed. Reminiscences of Rosa Bonheur. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1910. Reprint, New York: Hacker Art Books, 1976. page number: Mentioned: p. xi url: Rohowsky, Peter S. French Nineteenth Century Drawings, Pastels, Watercolors. Exh. Cat. New York: Shepherd Gallery, 1977. page number: Reproduced: no. 10 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. 278 url: Foster, Carter E., Sylvain Bellenger, and Patrick Shaw Cable. French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin. Exh. Cat. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001. page number: Mentioned: cat. no. 48, p. 106-107; Reproduced: p. 107 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2008.410/2008.410_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2008.410/2008.410_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2008.410/2008.410_full.tif