Rosa Bonheur was considered to be among the greatest French animaliers of the nineteenth century, and is still today one of the most celebrated women artists of her generation. A precocious talent from a young age, Bonheur and her siblings were trained by her father, Raimond, in traditional methods of drawing and painting. Throughout her early career, from copying the masters in the Louvre at the age of fourteen, to studying animals from life, Bonheur defied restrictive gender codes across institutions and cultural norms. She began exhibiting at the state-sponsored Salon at the age of nineteen and enjoyed a long career marked by critical acclaim and commercial success.

This sweet study of a shaggy bull, standing in three-quarters view to the left and seen from behind, remained in Bonheur’s studio, unsigned, until her death in 1899 after which it was stamped with an authorized signature by her companion, the portrait painter Anna Klumpke, ahead of her posthumous studio sale the following year where it is listed as no. 239 Ox (Boeuf). The red Vente Rosa Bonheur wax seal and the number 239, written in red and circled, on the stretcher marks its inclusion in the sale, which was accompanied by a bilingual catalogue, with text in French and English, attesting to Bonheur’s market appeal beyond her native France.