Why Rosa Bonheur's "Horse Fair" is a Masterpiece of Realism

It is important to remember that Bonheur was ultimately more than a markedly achieved artist. She was also a fiercely independent and determined individual. For example, after she received unwanted attention and harassment while sketching on location, she began to disguise herself as a man for such outings.

Her socialist father, to an extent that was unusual for the nineteenth century, believed in equal rights and opportunities for all people. The artist once said, “To [my father’s] doctrines I owe my great and glorious ambition for the sex to which I proudly belong and whose independence I shall defend until my dying day.”

By the time Bonheur embarked on her masterful Horse Fair, she was already established as an incredible painter, especially of animals. Her choice, therefore, to depict the Parisian horse market of the Boulevard de l’Hôpital was not unexpected.

Even so, the manner in which she monumentalized the mundane through said subject matter remains breathtaking and important. In other words, the painting is the quintessence of nineteenth-century Realism.

Millet, a contemporary of Bonheur, also produced work that fundamentally shaped what we now think of as nineteenth-century Realism. Unlike Bonheur, whose work was so strikingly real in large part due to her scientific study of animal anatomy, Millet tended to feature unfettered depictions of human suffering in his paintings. As such, the latter artist’s work often turned heads and sparked controversy. For example, when Millet’s The Gleaners exhibited at the Salon of 1857, the painting's honest depiction of rural poverty was immediately perceived as scandalous.

More consistently, Millet and Bonheur also both fostered an idealized style that was clearly shaped by the art of the past. Such influences that are especially evident in The Horse Fair include Gustave Courbet, Théodore Gericault, Eugène Delacroix, and George Stubbs.

The similarities between Gericault and Bonheur are easiest to see in paintings such as Horsewoman, in which the overlap of subject matter, compositional drama, and Romanticism is quite clear.

In contrast, the influence of Delacroix is quite clear across his oeuvre. Another Romantic painter, he and Bonheur additionally shared a fascination with ancient Greek sculpture. That said, at least in terms of The Horse Fair, it seems Bonheur was particularly inspired by the classical equine sculpture of the Parthenon.

And finally, Courbet’s influence on Bonheur is primarily evidenced by the two artists’ tendencies to work at a monumental scale.

As previously mentioned, The Horse Fair received wide praise upon its debut at the Paris Salon of 1853. As is often the case in art history, the artwork was further popularized via the sale of prints. In this case, an engraving designed by Thomas Landseer and based on an earlier, watercolor version of the masterpiece took off. 

The Realist style, which Bonheur and her masterpieces both helped shape, ultimately went on to inspire the Impressionists. Although artists like Édouard Manet continued to paint modern imagery, their work was never as political as that of the Realists.

Painters Molly Luce and Wayne Thiebaud both credit Bonheur’s work as an early, pivotal source of inspiration. Luce stated particularly that The Horse Fair was the first work of art that made her want to pursue painting.