Over a three-year period, 1852 – 1855, French painter Rosa Bonheur filled a massive canvas, 8 feet tall and 17 feet wide, with a group of gorgeous white Lippizaner stallions, a dark black horse, and other brown horses, passionately in motion in a field surrounded by trees and bordered by a dirt road, ostensibly a horse market. Now, Bonheur’s The Horse Fair is housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. It is remarkable for a number of reasons. First, it is by a woman artist, one who was classically trained, but who was not allowed in the studios for “life art” with nudes. So, she painted animals, even dead ones at the butcher shop. Second, its size is quite large, on par with Rembrandt’s The Night Watch and Tintoretto’s Gloria del Paradiso (1588-1592).
However, instead of depicting a religious scene or memorializing the wealthy members of society, Bonheur dedicates the large canvas to animals. They are not even in battle or doing anything heroic; they’re simply behaving as spirited horses will at a horse fair. Men are trying to handle and control them, but the horses are winning. According to the conventions, there were four genres of painting, and they had a hierarchy. First, were the historical paintings which would feature important battles, scenes from religious stories, allegorical or other subjects of overweening importance. Next were portraits, which were supposed to be of aristocracy, religious figures, or members of the upper class. Next came genre painting, which would include scenes of everyday life. Fourth in the hierarchy was landscape painting, which could also include cityscapes. Animal painting was fifth, and the final and lowest on the list was still life.
One example of historical paintings from the Renaissance makes one aware of the way they convey culturally normative messages. Gloria del Paradiso (1588-1592) by Tintoretto which is the largest painting of the Renaissance at around 28 high and 80 feet wide. It depicts Dante’s Divine Comedy, and all the characters one finds in Dante’s Paradiso. When it comes to depicting a whole cast of characters, and a cosmology, give me Hieronymus Bosch. His Garden of Earthly Delights and also Ship of Fools are so complex and filled with visual metaphors and stories, that one could stay and contemplate them for hours.
What made Bonheur’s painting so shocking in terms of genre? She made an animal painting in the same size and format as a history painting, with the battle being between the handlers and the horses. What were some of the underlying thoughts that would come to mind? The first that come to mind are those of freedom and liberty – the horses are struggling to be liberated from their bits and ropes. In this sense, the canvas is definitely allegorical, particularly given that moment in history, with anti-monarchist sentiment in Europe. Given that interpretation, Bonheur’s painting could have been dangerous. The Revolutions of 1848 spread through Europe, starting in Sicily, the going to Italy, Germany, and France, where the repressive, authoritarian “July Monarchy” was toppled. In the other countries, the revolutions failed, and the miserable conditions of the people continued, with poverty, income inequality, brutal authoritarianism, and lavish / wasteful spending by the monarchies and nobility. Bonheur’s rebellious horses rise and writhe, but they are in the process of being brought back under control.
