The Horse Fair

The Horse Fair is an oil on canvas painting by the French artist Rosa Bonheur, begun in 1852 and first shown at the Paris Salon of 1853. It depicts horse dealers and their animals, including draft horses and Percherons, at the market held on the Boulevard de l Hopital in Paris, with the Salpetriere hospital visible in the background. Bonheur prepared the work over about eighteen months of sketching at the actual market, reportedly dressed as a man to move through the crowd without drawing attention. The finished canvas measures about 244.5 by 506.7 centimetres and was bought at auction in 1887 by Cornelius Vanderbilt II, who at once donated it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where it remains one of the best known nineteenth century paintings held there. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/