Rosa Bonheur was an exceptional painter who broke all the codes of her time.

She specialized in animal painting, a genre hitherto reserved for men. It wasn't easy to observe animals in a long dress. Indeed, when she painted the Parisian horse market, she obtained a cross-dressing permit, i.e. permission to wear pants! With her short hair, she was often mistaken for a man.

Standing at a height of 1.50 m, she created "Ploughing in the Nivernais", a painting measuring 2.60 x 1.33 m, roughly the size of a cow! With this format, normally used for history painting, Rosa Bonheur elevates the work that feeds man every day into a truly heroic act. When, in 1848, the State commissioned her to paint this ploughing scene to celebrate agricultural progress, the young woman chose to focus on oxen, animals she knew well from the fun she'd had chasing them when, as a little girl, she spent vacations with her grandparents. Although men are present, they are relegated to the background and are very small compared to the animals.

Observe the precision with which the oxen are depicted: the musculature, the coat, the drool that escapes from the animals' mouths and betrays their effort, and even the look that the white ox in the center casts at us, are so realistic that they look like a photograph.

In this way, the painting provides valuable evidence for zootechnicians, as it depicts breeds that have now disappeared: while the white cattle, the Charolais breed, still exist, the red ox with the white spots is thought to be of the Morvandelle breed, which disappeared at the beginning of the 20th century.

"Ploughing in the Nivernais" brought success to Rosa Bonheur, a success that would never be denied.

Thanks to the sale of her paintings, she bought the Château de By in Seine-et-Marne. She was the first woman to buy a property in her own name.

A passionate animal lover, she lived there surrounded by horses, deer, gazelles and even lions and lionesses, all of which she enjoyed painting.