Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-01-02


Art in New York hangs a picture or
colossal size. recognized at once by
every visitor as Rosa Bonheur's Horse
Fair" Few paintings are more widely
known. Before reaching it's present
abode it had been exhibited for Zee
in many of the cities of the world
The artist herself duplicated it no less
than four times, producing copies OF
varying sizes now hanging in European
galleries. 1t has, moreover, been re-
peatedly engraved and reproduced by
almost every known process. There
are few to whose minds the mention
Of the Horse Fair" does not call up
very real and graphic picture.
The financial history of this picture
curiously parallels the story of the
vicissitudes of the artist-or, for that
matter of any other artist Though
1T was painted after Miss Bonheur had
attained fame and high standing
among artists, it was hawked for sew
eral years about the galleries of Eu-
medals and ribbons, but. alas! without
a purchaser. This was probably due
in part to its colossal size, which un-
fitted it for any except the largest
galleries.
Finally Sold for $4,000.
At last it was sold for 10000 francs
about $4,000. Even this does not meas
ure the value which the artist put on
her work. She had been about to sell
the picture to the municipality Of Bor-
deaux for $4,000 francs, and holding
it unfair to accept the 10000 offered
by the actual purchaser, painted for
him a small replica which he after
ward so used as to reduce the cost of
the large painting to something like
5000. It's next sale was to an Ameri
can for $4,000, but the French seller
was allowed to retain the picture for
exhibition purposes for two or three
lyears-Which suggests that the ex-
hibition rights had decided value.
Next it went to A. T. Stewart, then
equipping that marble palace which
many New Workers of generation ago
thought equal to Versailles or Windsor
The dry goods kings death threw his
art collection on the market and this
fit purchaser in Commodore Wander
bilt, whose love for horses was almost
as passionate as that of Rosa Bonheur
herself. The commodore presented 1t
to the Metropolitan Museum. where it
will rest as secure in it's place as it's
creator is in her fame.
The story of this painting. which,
after bringing $4,000 or Whereabouts to
it's creator, found it's final purchaser
at a price of $4,000, expresses in the
vulgar language of dollars and cents
something of the life of the artist
Dying a ehevalier Of the Legion of
Honor of France, surrounded by medals
and trophies won by the skill of her
brush, possessed of sufficient fortune,
which would have been a great one
but for her boundless charities. Rosa
Bonheur grew up in garnet and was
|apprenticed to a seamstress that she
1;xvsr hi II
her fathers circumstances would not
guarantee her.
Father a Painter of Merit.
Yet the father was himself painter
of merit, but he had fallen on evil
times and was compelled to make a
slender livelihood giving drawing les
sons at Bordeaux, where March IS.
1882, Rosa was born-the eldest Of four
children. Her childhood was chiefly
notable for an intense aversion to
|school-not an unusual trait-and an
even more passionate devotion to
nature. and particularly to animal
nature In her tenderest years she
lspent in her fathers studio all the
time she could not be outdoors, and
there tried to model in clay and to
draw Artist though he was Raymond
Germ signs of promise in these childish
efforts, and Rosa was we'll into her
twelfth year when her pertlnaclty
forced upon his attention that she was
not the ordinary jeune file, and that
the project of making out OF her
seamstress was merely criminal.
Amazed at his discovery, the father set
about Transforming his ugly duckling into
a swan. Henceforward his life was de-
voted to developing and directing the
talent he had been so slow to recognize.
In her seventeenth year Rosa was
working busily and contentedly at copy
ing without having chosen. or thought Of
choosing any particular speciality. Land
scape, classical and genre painting all
engaged her attention. But the story
goes that having one day made a striking
study Of that most unromantic animal.
a goat all her old devotion to animal
determined to drop copying at once and
go direct to nature for her subjects.
Daily she plodded out into the country.
sketching views and animals Sometimes
with canvas and colors, at others with
lump of clay, for she loved modelling, she
set out early in the morning. returning at
night tired and often muddy and wet, but
rejoicing in day of hard study.
Haunted Abattoirs of Paris.
But within walking distance of a great
city the beasts of the field are not so
easy to find. Rosa thereupon adopted an
eXpedient which it would seem must have
been trying to an artistic temperament.
She began to haunt the abattoirs of Paris
the stockyards and the slaughter
houses of the city. There she would
spend the day painting the cattle. sheep
and swine, not merely in the crowded
pens where they dumbly awaited an In
known fate. but in the shambles them
selves, that she might note their attitudes
under the agony and terror of the final
stroke. Nor did she neglect the arduous
study of anatomy by dissections and from
charts. You must know what's under
their SKINS" she would say, otherwise
it will be mat rather than tiger"
From this she turned to visiting the
stables of the city and the fairs held In
its neighborhood. 1t was in the course
Of this work that she came to adopt the
masculine costume for the freedom and
protection 1t gave But it was not with
out it's embarrassments when some horse
dealer, hattered by her pictures of his
animals, would insist on sharing bottle
of wine or something stronger with her,
or some maid in a village inn opened
hopeful Irritation with the pink-cheeked
boy who talked so quietly and painted
so well.
With such hard and practical work it