The Horse Fair
The Horse Fair
Rosa Bonheur · 1852 to 1855
01
Paris. 1852.
A horse market on the Boulevard de l'Hôpital.
Rosa Bonheur goes twice a week.
For a year and a half.
02
That dome is the Salpêtrière.
An asylum.
The market ran beside it.
03
Over five metres wide.
Nearly two and a half metres high.
Dapple greys, hooves lifting.
04
She drew here in men's clothes.
It drew fewer stares.
In Paris, a woman in trousers needed a police permit.
Bonheur held one. Renewed every six months.
05
One rider wears a blue smock.
He sits the rearing black horse.
He is often read as Bonheur herself.
The whole market.
In motion.
“The suit I wear is my work attire and nothing else.”
$53,000
1853: the Paris Salon. Wide praise.
Bordeaux could have had it for 15,000 francs.
The city passed. A dealer paid 40,000.
1887: Cornelius Vanderbilt pays $53,000.
He gives it to the Met the same year.
Rosa Bonheur
French · Realism · 1822 to 1899
Sources · 6