The Horse Fair by Rosa Bonheur

Tip: move over the painting to use the lens.

The Horse Fair

Rosa Bonheur · 1852–55

Artist
Rosa Bonheur French, Bordeaux 1822–1899 Thomery
Date
1852–55
Medium
Oil on canvas
Size
96 1/4 x 199 1/2 in. (244.5 x 506.7 cm)
Where to see it
The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Gift of Cornelius Vanderbilt, 1887 · CC0 Public Domain · The Met · see it at the museum ↗

Slow Look

  1. The whole picture Let your eyes wander. Where do they want to rest?
  2. The light Find the brightest spot. What is it showing you?
  3. The edges Look at what is half cut off at the borders.
  4. One small detail Choose one tiny thing and stay with it for a while.
  5. The whole picture again Step back. Has it changed for you?

About Rosa Bonheur

Rosa Bonheur was a French painter, sculptor and animalier. Her paintings include Ploughing in the Nivernais, first exhibited at the Salon of 1849, and now in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, and The Horse Fair, which was exhibited at the Salon of 1853 and is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Bonheur was widely considered to be the most famous female painter of the nineteenth century. She made sculptures in a realist style.

Painter profile →

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