The Horse Fair 1852 - 1855

Rosa Bonheur’s painting, The Horse Fair, presents a scene of powerful Percheron horses being herded at a market in 1850s Paris. What is striking about this work is the way it negotiates traditional gender roles within the French Salon system. Bonheur gained special permission from the police to wear trousers and a smock in order to work at the horse market. Her attire allowed her greater freedom of movement, but it also challenged social norms. We might consider this painting as a carefully constructed performance of both masculinity and artistic skill, in a society that excluded women from many public spaces. To fully appreciate Bonheur’s achievement, we can consult historical records, police archives, and Salon catalogues, as well as gender studies, histories of dress, and literature on the changing place of women in nineteenth-century France. What we find is that the meaning of art is always contingent on social context.