The scene is probably located on one of the high pasturelands of the Pyrenees. Rosa Bonheur took a trip there in 1850 and brought back many studies that she used throughout her career.
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Inscription: Signed and dated (lower left): Rosa Bonheur / 1879
[Tedesco Frères, Paris, until 1880; sold February 12 for Fr 50,000 to Knoedler]; [Knoedler, New York, 1880; stock no. 2292; sold March 11 for $12,500 to Wolfe]; Catharine Lorillard Wolfe, New York (1880–d. 1887)
New York. Knoedler. "An Exhibition of Paintings and Prints of Every Description, on the Occasion of Knoedler, One Hundred Years, 1846–1946," April 1–27, 1946, no. 10.
New York. American Federation of Arts. "A Landscape View of 19th Century France (circulating exhibition)," September 1, 1954–1957, no catalogue?
Columbus, Ga. Columbus Museum of Arts and Crafts. "A Centenary of a Great Museum: Old Master Paintings," November 1, 1969–October 31, 1970, unnum. checklist.
Queens, N.Y. Queens Museum. "The Artist's Menagerie: Five Millennia of Animals in Art," June 29–August 25, 1974, no. 72.
Gifu, Japan. Musée des Beaux-Arts, Gifu. "Paris autour de 1882: Le développement de la peinture moderne en France et Hôsui Yamamoto," November 3–December 19, 1982, no. 52.
Kamakura. Kanagawa Museum of Modern Art. "Paris autour de 1882: Le développement de la peinture moderne en France et Hôsui Yamamoto," January 20–February 20, 1983, no. 52.
New York. School of Visual Arts, Visual Arts Museum. "Les Animaliers and Animals in Early Nineteenth-Century French Art," April 8–27, 1985, no catalogue.
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux. "Rosa Bonheur (1822–1899)," May 18–September 18, 2022, no. 27.
"Charity Losing A Helper: The Death of Miss Caharine L. Wolfe." New York Times 36 (April 5, 1887), p. 8.
Montezuma [Montague Marks]. "My Note Book." Art Amateur 16 (May 1887), p. 122.
Mrs. Schuyler van Rensselaer. "The Wolfe Collection at the Metropolitan Museum. II." Independent 39 (November 24, 1887), p. 9.
"Gallery and Studio: The Metropolitan Museum of Art." Art Amateur 18 (December 1887), p. 7.
John Denison Champlin Jr. and Charles C. Perkins, ed. Cyclopedia of Painters and Paintings. New York, 1892, vol. 1, p. 177.
"The Metropolitan Museum of Art—The French Painters." New York Times (May 22, 1895), p. 4.
Anna Klumpke. Rosa Bonheur: Sa vie, son oeuvre. Paris, 1908, p. 426, ill. p. 377 [English ed., "Rosa Bonheur: The Artist's (Auto)biography," Ann Arbor, 1997, p. 278], lists it among works that the artist did not exhibit.
Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 10.
Charles Sterling and Margaretta M. Salinger. French Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 2, XIX Century. New York, 1966, p. 164, ill., suggest that it depicts one of the high pasture lands of the Pyrenees, noting that Bonheur travelled there in 1850 and used her studies from the trip throughout her career.
Rosalia Shriver. Rosa Bonheur: With a Checklist of Works in American Collections. Philadelphia, 1982, p. 56.
Maureen C. O'Brien in Maureen C. O'Brien. In Support of Liberty: European Paintings at the 1883 Pedestal Fund Art Loan Exhibition. Exh. cat., Parrish Art Museum. Southampton, N.Y., 1986, p. 134 n. 4, under no. 6.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 431, ill.
Rebecca A. Rabinow. "Catharine Lorillard Wolfe: The First Woman Benefactor of the Metropolitan Museum." Apollo 147 (March 1998), pp. 52, 55 n. 28, fig. 8 (color), notes that Wolfe purchased this painting from Knoedler on March 11, 1880 for $12,500.
David Stark. European Painting in the Tweed Museum of Art, University of Minnesota Duluth. Duluth, 2000, p. 52, fig. 1, attributes the Tweed Museum version of this picture to Bonheur, calling it a replica of ours.
Léa Rebsamen. "Rosa Bonheur, artiste animalière au XIXe siècle." PhD diss., Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire d'Alfort, 2013, p. 78, fig. 52 (color).
Margaret R. Laster in "From Private to Public: Catharine Lorillard Wolfe, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Bequest of 1887." What's Mine is Yours: Private Collectors and Public Patronage in the United States: Essays in Honor of Inge Reist. Ed. Esmée Quodbach. New York, 2021, p. 192.
Rosa Bonheur (1822–1899). Ed. Sandra Buratti-Hasan and Leila Jarbouai. Exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux. Paris, 2022, p. 266, no. 27, ill. p. 40 (color).
A version of this picture (21 x 28 in., signed or inscribed, lower left: Rosa Bonheur) is in the Tweed Museum of Art, University of Minnesota, Duluth (see Stark 2000).
After Rosa Bonheur (French, Bordeaux 1822–1899 Thomery)
1857–71
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