Return from the Horse Fair (1873): Art, History and Details

Return from the Horse Fair (1873) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Rosa Bonheur (French, 1822–1899).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Rosa Bonheur was the first woman artist to receive the Cross of the French Legion of Honor, a French civilian and military decoration. She achieved great official and commercial success, especially for her carefully finished and naturalistic paintings of animals. This watercolor displays Bonheur's technical mastery and her close study of anatomy, as well as her appreciation for the natural beauty of the horses. The animals are arranged in a shallow frieze across the long composition, and their manicured tails, along with the riders' costumes and the finely-wrought iron fence, identify them as stock from the historic national breeding stables.

Object facts

• Title: Return from the Horse Fair
• Date: 1873
• Creator attribution: Rosa Bonheur (French, 1822–1899)
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: watercolor and gouache over graphite
• Dimensions: Sheet: 25.9 x 56.7 cm (10 3/16 x 22 5/16 in.)
• Collection: DR - French
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 2008.410

A detail from the museum

This drawing is one of numerous sheets relating to a large-scale painting now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Collection credit

Bequest of Muriel Butkin

Further reading listed by the museum

• Klumpke, Anna. Rosa Bonheur; sa vie, son œuvre. Paris: Flammarion, 1909.
• Christie, Manson & Woods, London. Ancient and Modern Pictures and Drawings. June 28, 1940. Lot 3.
• Christie, Manson, & Woods, London. Modern Pictures and Drawings, The Property of Sir Jeremiah Colman. Lot 2.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.