Head of a Bull

Rosa Bonheur

Brooklyn Museum photograph

Brooklyn Museum photograph

1 of 2

Object Label

Rosa Bonheur’s closely observed animal paintings made her one of the most commercially successful artists in mid-nineteenth-century France. Though not identified with a particular finished oil painting, this watercolor sketch of a bull is typical of the kind of preparatory studies she made directly from nature.

Throughout her lifetime, Bonheur defied norms for women’s behavior. She wore masculine attire and lived with another woman, Nathalie Micas, for forty years, writing, “Had I been a man I would have married her. . . . I would have had a family, with my children as heirs, and nobody would have had any right to complain.”

Caption

Rosa Bonheur French, 1822–1899. Head of a Bull, n.d.. Watercolor and graphite on cream wove paper, 4 15/16 x 6 7/8 in. (12.5 x 17.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of John Hill Morgan, 22.80. No known copyright restrictions (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 22.80.jpg)

Gallery

Not on view

Collection

European Art

Title

Head of a Bull

Date

n.d.

Geography

Place made: France

Medium

Watercolor and graphite on cream wove paper

Classification

Watercolor

Dimensions

4 15/16 x 6 7/8 in. (12.5 x 17.5 cm)

Signatures

Signed lower left: "Rosa Bonheur"

Credit Line

Gift of John Hill Morgan

Accession Number

22.80

Rights

No known copyright restrictions

This work may be in the public domain in the United States. Works created by United States and non-United States nationals published prior to 1923 are in the public domain, subject to the terms of any applicable treaty or agreement. You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this work. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). The Museum does not warrant that the use of this work will not infringe on the rights of third parties, such as artists or artists' heirs holding the rights to the work. It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions before copying, transmitting, or making other use of protected items beyond that allowed by "fair use," as such term is understood under the United States Copyright Act. The Brooklyn Museum makes no representations or warranties with respect to the application or terms of any international agreement governing copyright protection in the United States for works created by foreign nationals. For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.

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