The Horse Fair

this is a painting i used to visit at the Metropolitan Museum, just pop in to see anytime i was headed past the musuem. it is 8 feet by 16 feet.

The Horse Fair, 1853–55
Rosa Bonheur (French, 1822–1899)
Oil on canvas; 96 1/4 x 199 1/2 in. (244.5 x 506.7 cm)
Gift of Cornelius Vanderbilt, 1887 (87.25)

the Met's description: This picture shows the horse market held in Paris on the tree-lined boulevard de l'Hôpital, near the asylum of Salpêtrière, visible in the left background. For a year and a half Bonheur went there twice a week to make sketches. She dressed as a man to avoid attention. This work was shown in the Salon of 1853 and in 1854 in Bonheur's native Bordeaux, where the municipality refused to buy it for 12,000 francs. It was apparently retouched in 1855, the year it was sold to a London dealer for 40,000 francs.

learn about an 1852 oil study for The Horse Fair
read more about Rosa Bonheur