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The Horse F
The Horse F

f you took a stroll through the European Paintings galleries at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, you’d undoubtedly encounter Rosa Bonheur’s
ILe Marché aux Chevaux, or The Horse Fair, one of the finest achievements of
19th century French art.
The Horse Fair made its debut at the Paris Salon of 1853 and quickly became
one of the most critically acclaimed paintings of its day. It also secured Bonheur’s
place alongside George Stubbs and Jules Moigniez in the pantheon of great artists
of the Animalier movement. A closer look at this painting demonstrates why.

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The Horse Fair crackles with energy and danger. In the foreground, several
handlers attempt to corral a team of horses for prospective buyers. The horses
twist and turn within the frame, straining against their bonds or rearing to buck
their riders. The men seem to be at their mercy, holding on for dear life. In the
background, well-dressed spectators watch this thrilling spectacle take place
within the sedate confines of the tree-lined Boulevard de l’Hôpital.
Horse fairs were a common occurrence in nineteenth-century Paris, but the
beauty of Bonheur’s painting lies in its epic, even cinematic, composition. The
monumental scale of the work (eight feet high and sixteen feet long) allows for the
animals to be rendered with anatomic precision. Each horse moves differently
within the frame, and Bonheur shows their muscles coiling, their hooves kicking
up dust and hair whipping through the wind. In contrast, the figures of their
handlers are less distinct. These men merely serve to accentuate the beauty of
these majestic creatures. Her horses look like they could burst free of the painting
at any moment.
By the time she embarked on The Horse Fair, Rosa Bonheur was already an
established painter in the Animalier tradition, an artistic movement begun in the
late eighteenth century centered on the realistic depiction of animals. Having
been raised by artist parents, Bonheur began painting from an early age and
supplemented her education with classes on animal anatomy at the National
Veterinary Institute in Paris. She also made detailed studies of animals at the
Parisian slaughterhouses and the livestock at nearby farms.
Portrait of Rosa Bonheur, 1857, by E. L. Dubufe Indebted to the work of fellow Animalière George Stubbs and Antoine-Louis
which shows the artist, Miss Bonheur, with a bull, symbolic of her work Barye, among others, Bonheur was also inspired by the majestic depiction of
as a painter of animals, or Animalière. horses in the high-relief marble sculptures from the Parthenon, on view at the

20 Journal of Antiques and Collectibles