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Lot Essay
Rosa Bonheur is one of the most renowned animal painters in history. Born in Bordeaux in 1822, she received her earliest artistic education from her father Raymond, a landscape painter, who encouraged her interest in art in general, and in animals in particular. Women rarely obtained the right to be trained as professional artists, but Rosa Bonheur came from a family which supported equal rights for women. Raised with the values of the Saint-Simon movement, a religious association which believed in a peaceful society, advocated equality of women and men and supported the enfranchisement of women, Rosa Bonheur remained single all her life. Inspired by Georges Sand as a young girl, she dressed as a boy to visit the slaughterhouses and to learn animal anatomy. Later in her life she kept the habit of wearing male garments for comfort and to escape attention whilst visiting horse markets, a fact that added some flair to her reputation as an independent artist. Rosa Bonheur was also known for being intensely involved in the political life or her time, and during the 1870 Franco-Prussian war, she mobilised herself as a modern Joan of Arc.
Speaking to her American friend, the painter Anna Klumpke, Rosa once described herself as the student of her father and as being of a beautiful nature. She hoped to democratise creativity by presenting subjects that the general viewer could comprehend and appreciate. As a member of the generation of Barbizon artists who refused to see nature violated or altered by modernisation, Bonheur focused on those animals and people whom she feared would soon be eliminated as a result of change and progress. Among domestic and wild animals, she also portrayed American Indians and the legendary Buffalo Bill. She painted animals with realistic presence and strength, her approach to painting dominated by the primacy of drawing over colour and of memory over perception.
In 1853, after 18 months of hard and exclusive work, she presented The Horse Fair, her most rewarded canvas, at the Parisian Salon: 'It was widely successful, and the jury unanimously declared that from then on anything that I sent to the Salon would be automatically accepted' (Anna Klumpke, Rosa Bonheur, The Artist's (Auto)biography, translated by Gretchen van Slyke, University of Michigan, 1997, p.149). The mammoth canvas found its first buyer in the figure of the art dealer M. Gambart, who promptly told Bonheur about his intentions to show the painting at first in London, at Pall Mall, and then throughout the major cities of England. Even Queen Victoria was so impressed by Bonheur's art that she sent her a letter expressing all her admiration. Gambart also decided to have the picture engraved by Thomas Landseer, the brother of the painter Sir Edwin Landseer. For this purpose, Bonheur painted a small copy of The Horse Fair, which later became part of the National Gallery Collection, and which now hangs in the Tate Gallery. Further to its enormous success in the United Kingdom, The Horse Fair went off on tour to America, very soon becoming the property first of Mr. Wright and then of Mr. Stuart, whose collection was offered for sale in 1887. On this occasion The Horse Fair was sold for $55,500 to Cornelius Vanderbilt who, aware of its social value, bought it just for the pleasure of giving it to the Metropolitan Museum in New York, understanding that this was a public painting, not one to be kept in a private home.
Rosa Bonheur became a star in the art world, having a legendary ability to keep the press interested in her work. Thanks to her agent, Ernest Gambart, she understood that an artist needs to be unique in order to succeed. Understanding the aspects of the era she was living in, she almost always gained very favourable responses from the French and the English critics. This made it possible for her to widen a devoted following that was impatient to buy her work, and lent her an international reputation that only few other artists at that time could boast.
Tired of being a major social figure, Rosa Bonheur eventually decided to 'go to the birds', to quote Aristophanes; in other words, 'to retreat into solitude and live far from the madding crowd.' (Anna Klumpke, Rosa Bonheur, p. 162). It was then that the artist found a house in Thoméry, a village on the edge of the forest of Fontainebleau, and in 1860 she moved to the Chateau of By together with her furniture, studies, and animals. There she lived the rest of her life, carrying on doing what she cherished most: painting animals in their natural surroundings.
Three Stags in an Autumn Landscape was executed in 1875, probably in the forest of Fontainebleau. The animals, typically for Rosa Bonheur, have been observed from nature and reflect her mastery of the subject. The stags are painted with delicate touch, their fur coats and antlers rendered with fidelity and a realistic strength.
Speaking to her American friend, the painter Anna Klumpke, Rosa once described herself as the student of her father and as being of a beautiful nature. She hoped to democratise creativity by presenting subjects that the general viewer could comprehend and appreciate. As a member of the generation of Barbizon artists who refused to see nature violated or altered by modernisation, Bonheur focused on those animals and people whom she feared would soon be eliminated as a result of change and progress. Among domestic and wild animals, she also portrayed American Indians and the legendary Buffalo Bill. She painted animals with realistic presence and strength, her approach to painting dominated by the primacy of drawing over colour and of memory over perception.
In 1853, after 18 months of hard and exclusive work, she presented The Horse Fair, her most rewarded canvas, at the Parisian Salon: 'It was widely successful, and the jury unanimously declared that from then on anything that I sent to the Salon would be automatically accepted' (Anna Klumpke, Rosa Bonheur, The Artist's (Auto)biography, translated by Gretchen van Slyke, University of Michigan, 1997, p.149). The mammoth canvas found its first buyer in the figure of the art dealer M. Gambart, who promptly told Bonheur about his intentions to show the painting at first in London, at Pall Mall, and then throughout the major cities of England. Even Queen Victoria was so impressed by Bonheur's art that she sent her a letter expressing all her admiration. Gambart also decided to have the picture engraved by Thomas Landseer, the brother of the painter Sir Edwin Landseer. For this purpose, Bonheur painted a small copy of The Horse Fair, which later became part of the National Gallery Collection, and which now hangs in the Tate Gallery. Further to its enormous success in the United Kingdom, The Horse Fair went off on tour to America, very soon becoming the property first of Mr. Wright and then of Mr. Stuart, whose collection was offered for sale in 1887. On this occasion The Horse Fair was sold for $55,500 to Cornelius Vanderbilt who, aware of its social value, bought it just for the pleasure of giving it to the Metropolitan Museum in New York, understanding that this was a public painting, not one to be kept in a private home.
Rosa Bonheur became a star in the art world, having a legendary ability to keep the press interested in her work. Thanks to her agent, Ernest Gambart, she understood that an artist needs to be unique in order to succeed. Understanding the aspects of the era she was living in, she almost always gained very favourable responses from the French and the English critics. This made it possible for her to widen a devoted following that was impatient to buy her work, and lent her an international reputation that only few other artists at that time could boast.
Tired of being a major social figure, Rosa Bonheur eventually decided to 'go to the birds', to quote Aristophanes; in other words, 'to retreat into solitude and live far from the madding crowd.' (Anna Klumpke, Rosa Bonheur, p. 162). It was then that the artist found a house in Thoméry, a village on the edge of the forest of Fontainebleau, and in 1860 she moved to the Chateau of By together with her furniture, studies, and animals. There she lived the rest of her life, carrying on doing what she cherished most: painting animals in their natural surroundings.
Three Stags in an Autumn Landscape was executed in 1875, probably in the forest of Fontainebleau. The animals, typically for Rosa Bonheur, have been observed from nature and reflect her mastery of the subject. The stags are painted with delicate touch, their fur coats and antlers rendered with fidelity and a realistic strength.