Ploughing in the Nivernais

Realism in France

Rosa Bonheur

Ploughing in the Nivernais

1849

Oil on canvas, 133 × 260 cm. Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Two teams of oxen make the first ploughing of fallow land in central France, known as sombrage.

  • The State commissioned it in 1848; shown at the Salon of 1849, it was praised almost unanimously.
  • The Musée d'Orsay calls it a hymn to work in the fields.
  • The animals are studied as closely as portraits, and the land is a real region.

Image: Wikimedia Commons · Public domain

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