Sold for: $21,250

PROVENANCE
Collection of Gordon Cameron Edwards (1866 - 1946) Lumber Merchant and M.P., (owner of 24 Sussex Drive, Ottawa prior to its expropriation)
By descent to the present Private Collection, Ottawa

EXHIBITED
Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, Vente Rosa Bonheur, May - June, 1900, catalogue #82

Rosa Bonheur (French, 1822 – 1899) was a well-known French painter and sculptor who is admired for the accuracy of her portrayals of animals. She initially studied horses on farms, horse fairs, and even slaughterhouses, gaining a deep knowledge of their anatomies. When sketching in public places she took to wearing the clothing of a paysan to avoid the disparaging looks she would have received if dressed as a lady; she continued to dress in male clothing for the rest of her life, even obtaining police authorization to do so. Her paintings sold so well that in 1860 she was able to buy a château and estate on which she kept many different animals to sketch - including, remarkably, lions. Her work was popular both in Europe and the United States, and she is represented in many important collections - including "The Horse Fair" from 1852-55, bought by Cornelius Vanderbilt for a record sum, and now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

In May and June 1900, a posthumous sale of her work was held in Paris. This work was included in the catalogue as number 82, and was described as:

Étude de cheval brun

Attaché à un poteau, dans la clairière, il est vu de trois quarts à gauche et de dos, la tête tournée de profil à gauche.

(Study of a brown horse: Attached to a post, in a clearing; three quarters to the left, back view; the head in left profile.)

All prices are in Canadian Dollars

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