It is a hymn to agricultural labour, whose grandeur was magnified because, in these post-revolutionary days, it was easy to contrast with the corruption of the city. The comparison with Sand is amplified in an article in the July 1899 edition of The Literary Digest, which referred to the painting as a "pictorial translation of the novel". This is a part of the Wikipedia article used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY-SA). Initially intended for the museum in Lyon, it was instead exhibited in the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris and was a featured exhibit at the 1889 World Fair. Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more, http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/works-in-focus/search/commentaire_id/ploughing-in-nevers-2040.html?tx_commentaire_pi1%5BpidLi%5D=509&tx_commentaire_pi1%5Bfrom%5D=841&cHash=60f905d6af. Bonheur accurately painted the anatomy of animals, and of men, to the point of making them look fatigued: the poses show all the sacrifices necessary to tame a heavy matter of the earth. It is a hymn to agricultural labour, whose grandeur was magnified because, in these post-revolutionary days, it was easy to contrast with the corruption of the city. The painting's clarity and light resembles that of the Dutch paintings (esp. by Paulus Potter) which Bonheur had studied as part of her education. The painting was commissioned by the French government and won the gold medal of Salon in 1849.A French critic Théophile Thoré wrote about this painting: "Mademoiselle Rosa paints almost like a man." Those clods and the greenery were done, according to Bonheur, in a "heartwarming" way, according to Paulhan; she did not create, but merely reproduced, since on the one hand she was too complete by providing too much insignificant detail, and on the other hand she weakened nature by reproducing it. This scene, dated 1849, shows the first ploughing or dressing, which was done in early autumn to break the surface of the soil and aerate it during the winter. It depicts two teams of oxen ploughing the land, and expresses deep commitment to the land; it may have been inspired by the opening scene of George Sand's 1846 novel La Mare au Diable. When a man wanted to praise a woman artist, he told a phrase like that, implying that a woman art was inferior, and a good woman artist was an exception.The painting is extremely realistic. It is primarily an animal painting, and the heroes are the oxen themselves, leaving little room for the men: the cowherd is a diminutive figure. The freshly-ploughed land is prominent in the foreground, while the landscape behind is basking in sunlight. Besides The Horse Fair, Ploughing in the Nivernais is one of Bonheur's best-known paintings, and somewhat resembles Oxen going to work by Constant Troyon. Loggy and Alex’s friendship in Miami’s redeveloping Liberty Square is threatened when Loggy learns that Alex is being relocated to another community. When the artist died, rich and famous in France, England, but particularly in the United States, it was put in the Louvre and was later allocated to the Musée d'Orsay. On a sunny autumn day they plough the land; this is the sombrage, the first stage of soil preparation in the fall, which opens up the soil to aeration during the winter. The freshly turned soil scores the foreground.Attention is focused on the first team of Charolais-Nivernais cattle, whose light russet and white coats gleam in the cold, pale light. It depicts two teams of oxen ploughing the land, and expresses deep commitment to the land; it may have been inspired by the opening scene of George Sand's 1846 novel La Mare au Diable. The full text of the article is here →, {{$parent.$parent.validationModel['duplicate']}}, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ploughing_in_the_Nivernais, 1-{{getCurrentCount()}} out of {{getTotalCount()}}, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ploughing_in_the_Nivernais. The pretty rolling countryside with wooded hills in the distance provides the background for two teams of oxen pulling heavy ploughs. Paul Cézanne was also unimpressed, commenting that "it is horribly like the real thing". Rosa Bonheur gained a reputation painting animals, and Ploughing in the Nivernais features twelve Charolais oxen, in two groups of six. For all these reasons, this realist work drew almost unanimous critical acclaim. Similar to the Realists, Bonheur presents man and nature working seamlessly together to yield harvest from the land. An early admirer was Anna Elizabeth Klumpke, who copied the work in the Luxembourg before beginning a long acquaintance with the artist. It is a motif that lived through the history of art. According to Albert Boime, the painting should be seen as a glorification of peasant life and its ancient traditions; he places it in the context of the revolutionary year 1848, when cities were the scene of chaos and strife. It is one of the paintings singled out by Margaret Addison on her European tour in 1900, though philosopher Frédéric Paulhan in L'Esthétique du paysage (1913) was less impressed; Paulhan argued that good art simplifies, and that Ploughing in the Nivernais does not do so, spoiling it with the execution of the clods of earth. George du Maurier's 1894 novel Trilby mentions such a scene, of people copying Ploughing in the Nivernais and other works in the Luxembourg. https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/tools/my-selection/rss.html, - Legal information - © Musée d'Orsay 2006-2020. One of Rosa Bonheur's first great successes was Plowing in Nivernais (1848), which represents, in an extremely realistic way, a group of oxen that pull the plow, together with the farmers. Attention is focused on the first team of Charolais-Nivernais cattle, whose light russet and white coats gleam in the cold, pale light. Commissioned by the government and winner of a First Medal at the Salon in 1849, today it is held in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. Labourage nivernais, also called Le Sombrage [Ploughing in Nevers also called The First Dressing] This scene, dated 1849, shows the first ploughing or dressing, which was done in early autumn to break the surface of the soil and aerate it during the winter. Rosa Bonheur was claimed by New York Times critic Mary Blume as "the most famous woman painter of her time, perhaps of all time". Rosa Bonheur made the painting by commission of the French government for 3000 francs; it was shown in the Salon in 1849, where it won her a First Medal. It is also tribute to provincial regions – here the Nivernais, with its agricultural traditions and rural landscapes. The pretty rolling countryside with wooded hills in the distance provides the background for two teams of oxen pulling heavy ploughs. This scene, dated 1849, shows the first ploughing or dressing, which was done in early autumn to break the surface of the soil and aerate it during the winter. Ploughing in the Nivernais (French: Labourage nivernais), also known as Oxen ploughing in Nevers or Plowing in Nivernais, is a painting by French artist Rosa Bonheur.