Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899) was the painter of realistic animals, one of the greatest celebrated female painters of the 19th century. Bonheur grew up a precocious young girl at the side of her father, who was an artist. At age 14, she started sketching in the Louvre, learning the fundamentals of classical painting and the foundation for painting Plowing in the Nivernais. The blue sky occupies half the painting, the enormous, aligned oxen pulling a plow, creating a contrapuntal slope to the hill. The painting is exceptionally realistic; the viewer might nearly smell the fresh dirt turned over by the plow….

Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker provide a description, historical perspective, and analysis of Rosa Bonheur’s Plowing in the Nivernais.

Rosa Bonheur, Plowing in the Nivernais (or The First Dressing), 1849, oil on canvas, (Musée d’Orsay, Paris).