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Andalusian Bulls
(18th and 19th Centuries )
Rosa Bonheur was the most successful female artist of the19th century. She specialized in paintings of animals. Bonheur's art was underpinned by detailed, analytical study, and she is known to have visited slaughterhouses and dissected animals to acquire an understanding of anatomy. In the 1850s, she also kept a collection of horses, sheep, and goats in her Paris studio for study purposes. Later, she kept an even larger menagerie, including lions, at her château in By at the edge of the Forest of Fontainebleau, where she moved in 1860 and lived for the rest of her life ("Rosa Bonheur," Bordeaux, 1997).
Inscription
Provenance
Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.
Acquired by William T. Walters before 1879 [mode of acquisition unknown]; inherited by Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1894; by bequest to Walters Art Museum, 1931.
[1] The Diary of George A. Lucas, p. 571.
Exhibitions
| 2024-2025 | Reinstallation 2024: Art and Process. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. |
| 2005-2006 | The Essence of Line: French Drawings from Ingres to Degas. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore; Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham; Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma. |
| 1997-1998 | Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899). Musee des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux, Bordeaux; Musée de l'Ecole de Barbizon, Barbizon; Dahesh Museum of Art, New York. |
Conservation
| Date | Description | Narrative |
|---|---|---|
| 1/1/2002 | Treatment | examined for exhibition; cleaned; other |
Geographies
France (Place of Origin)
Measurements
H: 13 5/16 × W: 18 3/16 in. (33.8 × 46.2 cm)
Framed: H: 23 7/16 × W: 27 3/4 × D: 1 5/16 in. (59.5 × 70.5 × 3.3 cm)
Credit Line
Acquired by William T. Walters, before 1879
Location in Museum
Accession Number
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
37.911