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Painting by Rosa Bonheur
Haymaking in the
Auvergne
(French:
Fenaison d'Auvergne
or
La fenaison en Auvergne
) is an 1855 oil painting by French artist
Rosa Bonheur
. It measures 215 cm × 422 cm (85 in × 166 in).
After her first great artistic success,
Ploughing in the Nivernais
exhibited in 1849, Bonheur showed studies of two new paintings to French Minister of Fine Arts
Charles de Morny, Duke of Morny
. He rejected one,
The Horse Fair
, and commissioned
Haymaking in the Auvergne
instead. Bonheur focussed on completing
The Horse Fair
first, and De Morny attempted to change his mind after its good reception at the
Paris Salon
in 1853.
The painting depicts the loading of a
hay
onto a cart pulled by four oxen. The beasts to the right wait patiently, attended by a man in wide-brimmed hat. Other men are cutting grass with scythes, while women rake up the hay, and other people use
pitchforks
to lift the hay onto a large pile on the cart.
The painting was bought by the French state in 1854 for 20,000 francs. It won a gold medal when it was exhibited at the
Exposition Universelle
in Paris in 1855, as a pendant to
Ploughing in the Nivernais
. It was also exhibited as part of the retrospective of 19th century French art at the 1900
Exposition Universelle
.
The painting was held at the
Musee du Luxembourg
from 1874 to 1878, and then moved to the
Chateau de Fontainebleau
, where it remains. A smaller version, 71.1 by 129 centimetres (28.0 in × 50.8 in) is in a private collection. The print of an engraving by
William Turner Davey
was published in London in 1878 by
Louis Brall
& Sons.
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