Portrait of Col. William F. Cody (1889)

Rosa Bonheur: Portrait of Col. William F. Cody

Buffalo Bill enthralled Europeans with his Wild West exhibition when he took it to Paris in 1889. Bonheur visited the grounds of Cody's Wild West to sketch the exotic American animals and the Indian warriors with their families. Cody, in turn, accepted the invitation of Rosa Bonheur to visit her chateau in Fontainebleau where she painted this portrait. For Rosa Bonheur, Buffalo Bill embodied the freedom and independence of the United States. [Wikimedia Commons]

Rosa Bonheur (1888)

 Rosa Bonheur: Chamois Mother and Baby

  

Rosa Bonheur: Oxen of the Cantal Breed

Weaning the Calves (1879)

Rosa Bonheur: Weaning the Calves

The scene is probably located on one of the high pasturelands of the Pyrenees. Rosa Bonheur took a trip there in 1850 and brought back many studies that she used throughout her career. [Metropolitan Museum of Art]

The Monarch of the Herd (1868)

Rosa Bonheur: The Monarch of the Herd

Deer in the Moonlight (1867)

Rosa Bonheur: Deer in the Moonlight

Sheep by the Sea (1865)

Rosa Bonheur: Sheep by the Sea

Rosa Bonheur created Sheep by the Sea following a trip through the Scottish Highlands in the summer of 1855. In painting this complacent flock of sheep settled in a meadow near a body of water, Bonheur captured a placid moment. Sheep by the Sea demonstrates the artist’s commitment to direct observation from nature. The thickly applied paint provides texture that conveys the lushness of a verdant landscape at water’s edge. The informality of this rustic scene belies the detailed physiognomic studies of animals that Bonheur frequently sketched before executing a work in oil paint.

Although the Empress Eugénie of France commissioned Sheep by the Sea, Bonheur exhibited the painting at the Salon of 1867 before it entered her collection. The empress (like her contemporary, Queen Victoria) also patronized the renowned British artist Sir Edwin Landseer, whose sentimental paintings of domestic animals became popular among the upper classes in England and France. Yet, unlike Landseer’s animals, which play out human dramas, Bonheur’s animals appear within their natural habitats, not subjected to human laws and emotions. [National Museum of Women in the Arts]

The Highland Shepherd (1859)

Rosa Bonheur: The Highland Shepherd

Spanish Muleteers Crossing the Pyrenees (1857)

Rosa Bonheur: Spanish Muleteers Crossing the Pyrenees

The Horse Fair (1852-55)

Rosa Bonheur: The Horse Fair

This, Bonheur’s best-known painting, shows the horse market held in Paris on the tree-lined Boulevard de l’Hôpital, near the asylum of Salpêtrière, which is visible in the left background. For a year and a half Bonheur sketched there twice a week, dressing as a man to discourage attention. Bonheur was well established as an animal painter when the painting debuted at the Paris Salon of 1853, where it received wide praise. In arriving at the final scheme, the artist drew inspiration from George Stubbs, Théodore Gericault, Eugène Delacroix, and ancient Greek sculpture: she referred to The Horse Fair as her own "Parthenon frieze." [Metropolitan Museum]

Ploughing at Nevers (1849)

Rosa Bonheur: Ploughing at Nevers

The Tilling (1844)

Rosa Bonheur: The Tilling

Rosa Bonheur focused on animals and farm labor in her work. If the date on this painting is accurate, she was 22 when it was done. She is considered to be the most famous female painter of the 19th century (at least, by Janson, H. W., Janson, Anthony F. History of Art. Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers. 6th edition. ISBN 0-13-182895-9, page 674).