Returning from the Fair

Returning from the Fair, painted in 1873, depicts the aftermath of a market day — animals and their handlers making the journey home after commercial exchange — a subject that united Bonheur's interests in working animals, agricultural community, and the rhythms of rural economic life. Animal fairs were major events in the nineteenth-century French countryside, occasions when animals changed hands, breeding decisions were made, and rural communities came together in commercially and socially important gathering. Bonheur had attended such fairs throughout her career, including the horse fairs at Paris that provided material for her most famous work, and returning from them gave her subjects characterised by the particular mood of tired but satisfied completion that contrasts with the morning's anticipation. By 1873 her reputation was fully international and her paintings commanded strong prices; works like this one entered collecting networks across Europe and America. The fair's return journey offered a different kind of animal behaviour from the sale ring's contained excitement — looser movement, the tiredness of animals that had been in strange company for hours — all of which gave Bonheur fresh observational material.

The returning movement of animals and figures is conveyed through compositional direction and the postures of fatigue and relaxation that follow sustained effort. Bonheur's tonal organisation distinguishes the different animal types if multiple species are present, while maintaining the compositional coherence of a group in motion.