Shop art print and framed art El Cid by Rosa Bonheur

El Cid was painted by Rosa Bonheur in 1879. It is kept at the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid, Spain. Bonheur was a 19th-century French painter who made her name by specialising in the popular genre of animal painting. In 1848, she won a gold medal at the annual Salon des vaches et toros du Cantal, but her greatest triumph was exhibiting La Foire aux chevaux at the Salon of 1853. This monumental painting, bought by an American collector in 1857, became one of the most famous works of the century, making Bonheur a financial and critical success both in France and abroad. Cid, sidi or sid is a word of Arabic origin meaning "lord", which was given as a title to the lords of certain states dependent on a king (such as the reguls of the taifas in al-Andalus), as well as to the provincial governors of the Almoravids and Almohads. Its title alludes to the archetype that opposes all servility. Both with this work and with the paintings featuring his lioness Fathma, Bonheur was asserting a femininity that was not understood from a male point of view, but "from the strength of her own identity". The painting, however, is mentioned by Klumpke in his 1908 monograph devoted to Bonheur, with the significant title Un jeune prince (tête de lion). It was donated to the Prado Museum in 1879 by the painter's dealer and close friend Ernest Gambart. This donation served to boost Bonheur's reputation in Spain, and he was soon awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic, a [...]

 

This artwork is a painting from the modern period. It belongs to the realism style.

 

Find the full description of El Cid by Rosa Bonheur on Wikipedia.