Rosa Bonheur

Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge (1882-1973), Madison, NJ;

By whom sold, Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, 5 December 1975, lot 7;

With Central Picture Galleries, New York;

Where acquired, 1983.

Anne Henderson, Rosa Bonheur: Selected Works from American Collections, 1989, no. 32.

Washington, D.C., The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Rosa Bonheur: Selected Works from American Collections, Dec. 12, 1989-Mar. 11, 1990, no. 32

This majestic painting on panel of a red stag and doe resting at dawn in a springtime sunlit field not far from Fontainebleau and its forest features one of the most beautiful landscapes in Bonheur's painted oeuvre. The viewer is confronted with the sense of nature awakening, undisturbed by humanity's overbearing presence. The foreground is a careful study in plants; the heather is in bloom and its purple colors contrast with the green of the low vegetation and brownish towns of the rich earth. To paint the heather, Bonheur used lacque de garance, a recently commercialized color by the Lefranc House that was new to the market.

Red Stag and Doe in a Heathered Field was once owned by Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge, a great patron of the arts whose private collection included several paintings by Bonheur as well as many of her bronzes.

Annie-Paule Quinsac has generously confirmed the authenticity of this lot.