Plowing in Nyvern

Nivernais , a historical district near the city of Nevers , was known for breeding bulls of Charolais breed , which, later, played an important role in the agricultural revolution that occurred in the area in the nineteenth century ^[2] . The painting “ Plowing in Nyvern” depicts twelve Charolais oxen in two groups of six oxen plowing the ground on a sunny autumn day. This sombrazh (loosening) is the first stage of soil preparation in autumn, which opens the soil for aeration in winter ^[3] . In the picture, people play an insignificant role ^[4] - the farmer is almost completely hidden behind animals. Freshly plowed land is visible in the foreground, and the landscape in the background is basking in the sun ^[3] . The simplicity and lighting solution of the painting resemble paintings by Dutch artists (especially Paulus Potter ), whose work Boner studied as part of her education ^[5] .

N. D'Anverse repeats, apparently, the well-known story that the painting was inspired by the opening scene of George Sand’s novel “Damn Swamp ” (1846), in which the oxen plow the field, and the author comments that this is “a noble plot for artist ” ^{[1] [6]} . Comparison with Sand's work is reinforced in the July 1899 edition of The Literary Digest , where the painting was referred to as an “illustrated translation of the novel” ^[7] .

Rosa Boner painted a painting commissioned by the French government in 1849 ^{[3] [8]} for 3,000 francs ^[9] . The work was shown at the Paris Salon in the same year, ^[10] where it was awarded the First Medal ^[11] . Originally intended for the Lyon Museum, it was on display at the Luxembourg Museum in Paris ^[3] and was also shown at the 1889 World's Fair ^[9] . The painting was first placed in the Louvre, and then in the Orsay Museum ^[3] . Boehner made several copies of the painting, one of which is in the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art ^[5] .

In addition to the “Horse Fair” ^[12], “ Plowing in Nivernais” is one of the most famous paintings by Bonyer ^[13] . An early fan of the work was the artist, later Rosa's partner, Anna Elizabeth Klumpke , who made a copy of the painting in the Luxembourg Museum ^[14] . The picture of Constant Troyon “ Oxes going on arable land” (1855) bears a certain similarity with it ^[15] .

In George Dumurier ’s novel " Trilby" of 1894, a scene is mentioned where people copy the picture " Plowing in the Nivernais" and other works in the Luxembourg Museum ^[16] . This is one of the paintings by Margaret Addison during her European tour in 1900, ^[17] although the philosopher Frederic Polan in L'Esthétique du paysage (1913) was not very impressed with the work. Polan argued that good art makes it easy, but Plowing in Nyvern does not, spoiling it with detailed images of clods of the earth ^[18] . These lumps and greens were written in a “touching” way and according to Polan: Boner did not create , but simply reproduced , because, on the one hand, she was too meticulous, depicting too many minor details, and on the other hand, she weakened nature, reproducing her. ^[19] Paul Cezanne was not impressed either, stating that the painting was “terribly similar to the real thing” ^[9] .

According to art critic Albert Boyme , the picture should be seen as a glorification of peasant life and its ancient traditions, he placed it in the context of the revolutionary 1848 , when the cities were an arena of chaos and discord ^[20] . In 1978, the critic called the work "completely forgotten and rarely returned from oblivion." In the same year, the painting became part of a series of works sent to China by the French government for an exhibition entitled “French Landscape and the Peasant, 1820–1905.” ^[21] The New York Times critic Mary Blume stated in 1997 that “ the works [ Horse Fair as well as Plowing ] are more solid than fleeting, affectionate, but not sentimental - a bold celebration of working animals ” ^[9] .

• Addison, Margaret. Diary of a European Tour, 1900 / Jean O'Grady. - McGill-Queen's Press, 1999 .-- ISBN 9780773568006 .
• D'Anvers, N. Marie Rosalie Bonheur // Representative Painters of the XIXth Century . - London: Sampson Low, Marston and Co., 1899. - P. 90–92.
• Boime, Albert. Art in an Age of Civil Struggle, 1848–1871 . - University of Chicago Press, 2008.
• Cachin, Francoise. The Painter's Landscape // Rethinking France: Les Lieux de Mémoire / Pierre Nora. - U of Chicago P, 2006 .-- Vol. 2. - P. 295–342. - ISBN 9780226591339 .
• Harris, Jonathan. The New Art History: A Critical Introduction . - Routledge, 2002. - ISBN 9781134582501 .
• Hird, Frank. Rosa Bonheur . - G. Bell & Sons, 1904.
• Keith, Claire. Pilgrims in a Toxic Land: Writing the Trenches of the French Great War // The Environment in French and Francophone Literature and Film . - Rodopi, 2012 .-- Vol. 39. - P. 69–86. - ISBN 9789401208840 .
• Maurier, George Du. Trilby: A Novel . - Harper, 1922.
• Shaffer, John W. Agricultural revolution in the Nivernais // Family and Farm: Agrarian Change and Household Organization in the Loire Valley, 1500–1900 . - SUNY Press, 1982. - P. 129–44. - ISBN 9780873955621 .
• Paulhan, Frédéric. L'Esthétique du paysage . - Paris: Felix Algan, 1913.
• Vizetelly, Ernest Alfred. Paris and Her People Under the Third Republic . - FA Stokes, 1919.
• Waters, Clara Erskine Clement. Women in the fine arts: from the seventh century BC to the twentieth century AD . - Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1904.