Aquatint, Lithograph, and the Instant · The Romantic Horse
Return from the Horse Fair
Rosa Bonheur, 1873 · watercolour and gouache over graphite
What it is
A string of grey horses and their riders come home along a wall, in Rosa Bonheur’s watercolour and gouache over graphite of 1873.
Why it matters
Bonheur was the first woman artist to receive the Cross of the Legion of Honour, and here she returned to the horse market twenty years after the picture that made her name.
What to notice
One chestnut breaks the line of greys at the left, and the sky is left nearly bare paper.
The fair, going home.
Provenance
- Maker
- Rosa Bonheur, 1873
- Era
- The Victorian Turf (1837–1901)
- Chapter
- The String at Full Stretch
- Medium
- watercolour and gouache over graphite
- Made
- 1873
- Source
- The Cleveland Museum of Art · via Wikimedia Commons · 2008.410
Rights: CLEAR. Public domain — U.S. 95-year rule (published 1930 or earlier). Gated by the work’s own year of publication. Cleared by registry on 2026-11-01. Wikimedia Commons licence tag, read 2026-11-01: PD-Art|PD-old-100-expired. The maker died in 1899.
Format
The full-resolution, color-managed file — restored honestly, yours to print and keep.
Sized to protect print quality — this scan supports sizes up to 18x24" cleanly.
Size
$29.00
More from the Stable Wall
Steeplechasing — The Start
‘Elis’, Winner of the St Leger, 1836
Fores’s National Sports — The Run In
The Trotting Mare Nancy Hanks
Elsewhere in the family
- The Links — the other morning religion.
- Painted Lineage — the bloodline, beside the family line.
- Painted Earth — home ground as a period map.