[128430] Barnsley : Cooper Gallery - Sheep in a Landscape

The Cooper Gallery, Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire.

Exhibition.

Light & Soul.

Early Impressions of the French Landscape.

24 June - 7 October 2023.

 

19th century landscape artists, who worked in the Forest of Fontainebleau and along the coastal areas of Normandy.

Ingeniously illustrating how the greats like Monet drew inspiration from their visionary mentors, paving the way for an artistic movement that would change the face of art forever.

 

Sheep in a Landscape.

Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899).

Oil on canvas, undated.

 

French animal painter. She was trained by her father, Raymond Bonheur (1796-1849), and was precociously gifted, first exhibiting at the Paris Salon in 1841, when she was 19. In 1853 she scored an enormous hit there with The Horse Fair (1853, Met. Mus., New York; reduced replica in NG, London), and it repeated its success when it went on tour in Britain and the USA. She became well known not only for her work but also as a colourful and formidable character, outspoken in her feminine independence (she made drawings at such places as horse auctions and obtained police permission to wear men's clothes to avoid undue attention). In 1865 she was the first woman artist to become a member of the Legion of Honour.

 

Her home at the Château de By, near Fontainebleau, is now a museum devoted to her.

Done