18. A Horse of a Different Color
Show Notes
Big 3 Ideas from this episode:
Recap: Plato’s Allegory of the Soul : The “soul” is a chariot driven by a charioteer (Reason), drawn by two horses - let’s call them Yin (dark) and Yang (light).
Rosa Bonheur’s “The Horse Fair” painting
The Creative Process may change colors like one of the horses from The Wizard of Oz, wearing a mood ring. But you are still the one driving the chariot. and the horse is still doing its best for you. Enjoy the ride and the show - honor it.
“A Horse of a Different Color,” The Wizard of Oz, 1939
Rosa Bonheur, The Horse Fair, 1852 - 55
References:
“The Redemption of Rosa Bonheur,” Smithsonian Magazine, Elaine Sciolino, with Photos by Claudine Doury, November, 2020; https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/redemption-rosa-bonheur-french-artist-180976027/
The Wizard of Oz: Horse of a Different Color clips: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5T6umD9Z8HA
-
Episode 18: Horse of a Different Color
===
And this is Episode 18 a horse of a different color.
[00:00:35] In the late 1880s, Rosa Bonheur was one of the most famous and rich painters in Europe. She had just lost her partner. Nathalie Micas and she was inconsolable. So her art dealer knowing her love for horses arranged for her to have an excursion to go to the Victorian version of the world's fair.
[00:00:53] This was the universal exposition of 1889. Where the newly built Eiffel tower was making its debut.
[00:01:00] And in the shadow of that tower. There were all sorts of exhibits. One of them was wild bill Cody's Wild West Show.
[00:01:08] He had cowboys and he had Indians. Real native Americans who had come along with him in their full regalia.
[00:01:15] The French ate it up. This may have been where the French has love for Dallas was born.
[00:01:20] His show was all about how things worked in the wild west with horse roping.
[00:01:25] All well, decked out in colorful, fancy leather costumes with fringe flying.
[00:01:29] And since Rosa was a painter of animals. And loved animals.
[00:01:34] her art dealer thought she would love to see the horses. And indeed she did.
[00:01:38] Rosa became sort of an artist in residence at wild Bill's camp. Over the next few weeks, she ended up painting 17 paintings.
[00:01:47] And she loved that experience so much that she offered to paint wild Bill's portrait for free. On horseback. He was on horseback, not her. But at this time she was getting $60,000 a piece for her portraits. So this was a big deal.
[00:02:03] He sent the portrait off to his house in north Platte, Nebraska and years later, when he heard the house was burning down, he wired his sister, Julia to save the Bonheur and let the house burn.
[00:02:16] Rosa and Wild Bill became unlikely fast friends. both horses of a different color, but when you think about it, it makes sense. They both loved animals, they loved art, and they loved performance.
[00:02:30] Rosa Grew up in Paris, the daughter of a landscape and portrait painter. When she was a kid. She had a hard time learning to read. So her mother made an exercise that would allow Rosa to draw pictures of animals for each letter of the alphabet. She was a tomboy in petticoats as her grandfather called her.
[00:02:47] As she got older and grew in her painting expertise. She found that animals would be her main subject. There were only a few options for women painters at the time. And Rosa broke all the rules. She dressed in [00:03:00] trousers and she smoked cigarettes. She rode a stride instead of sidesaddle. In fact, she got an official permit from the Paris police to wear trousers. She studied animal anatomy. As male painters did by going to slaughterhouses or abbatoirs and watching the animals and drawing them there.
[00:03:19] And her paintings. Got to be in demand.
[00:03:22] If she was a man, this would be nothing unusual. But because she was a woman, people saw her as unusual.
[00:03:28] This goes back to the idea of imposter syndrome. If you haven't listened to the imposter syndrome episode. I talk a little bit more in there about the idea of the artist as being able to move between classes and roles and Rosa Bonheur did this. She was a true original.
[00:03:43] She embraced her imposter role. Up until 2013, it was still illegal for women to wear men's clothing and France. They didn't change that law until 2013. They didn't enforce it. But way back then in 1851, it was a real law that was enforced. So Rosa went to the Paris police to get official permission.
[00:04:06] To wear trousers to be an imposter. She said it was because she was a painter. It was hard scrambling around among the horses and the cows at the abbatoirs . And hanging around with wild bill and riding horses and hauling her paints around when she was wearing corsets and a huge Victorian skirt.
[00:04:23] And all of that was true. But also the truth was she just wanted to wear trousers.
[00:04:28] Her life was fascinating. She was sought after by royalty and the rich.
[00:04:32] In 1865, she was decorated with the French Legion of honor award by Empress Eugenie Napoleon the third's wife.
[00:04:41] She was given the level of Chevalier which means Knight.
[00:04:45] Knight ride horses. Cheval means horse. This is perfect for Rosa because she loved horses. She was the first female artist to receive this award.
[00:04:54] And the Empress said. “Genius has no sex.”
[00:04:58] Bonheur showed her paintings to queen Victoria, czar. Nicholas.
[00:05:02] Queen Isabella of Spain and Eugene Delacroix was a fan.
[00:05:05] So why don't we know more about this woman? One reason is that she was a realist painter at the end of the glory days of realist Victorian painting. Just before impressionism. And she painted animals, not famous people.
[00:05:20] Impressionism came along and became all the rage. So the art world took off towards impressionism post-impressionism abstraction
[00:05:29] and traditional art fell into the background.
[00:05:31] Bonheur live to be 77.
[00:05:33] After Nathalie died, she had another relationship with an American painter. Anna Elizabeth clunky. she went to great lengths to.
[00:05:42] Take care of Bonheur's legacy. And to show her work. After she died.
[00:05:47] There was a great article in 2020 in Smithsonian magazine about Bonheur Chateau. It was recently purchased. By a French woman.
[00:05:55] Who is restoring it into a museum.
[00:05:57] As I talked about in the last episode with [00:06:00] Plato's allegory of the soul as a charioteer who drives his chariot with a white horse on the right and a dark horse on the left. I thought it was so apropos because Bonheur truly drives her own chariot, but she's also a horse of a different color.
[00:06:15] She was a female artist in a man's profession. A professional painter. She was a lesbian who did not hide or downplay her life with her partner. She made a lot of money as a painter and she did what she wanted to do, even though it was traditional. I wanted to highlight this painting called the horse fair.
[00:06:32] When Bonheur painted it, she spent weeks at the horse fair,
[00:06:37] which was where horses we're traded and purchased and paraded and she made drawings and then ended up creating this huge painting.
[00:06:45] Which has been called the best animal painting in history. It's 16 feet long and eight feet tall. And it's now at the metropolitan museum of art.
[00:06:55] And on my website.
[00:06:56] Bonheur had the courage to live her life and the way she wanted to, she made her own money. She learned her craft and she was an entrepreneur and she went out and found work.
[00:07:07] She also said she was at the mercy of her art. She once called her art, a tyrant that demands heart, brain, soul, and body.
[00:07:15] Personally, I also love painting on big canvases. But it's physically demanding and I can't imagine painting a 16 foot long realist painting. How physically demanding that would be.
[00:07:28] It would take courage.
[00:07:29] And so that's the one word that rises up here. That Plato's chariot has the light horse, the noble side. It has the dark horse, the appetites and creative energy. And it has the charioteer. That is reason driving the chariot. Bonheur is such a great example of this. She created this life for herself with great courage. And she received the medal.
[00:07:52] Of the Legion of honor from another woman, The Empress Eugenie.
[00:07:56] It reminds me of that moment in the wizard of Oz, when the lion receives his medal of honor from Oz. It's on a big red ribbon it's a huge medal cross. And it looks like it's modeled after the Legion of Honor award, just like Rosa received from the Empress.
[00:09:00] when she says her art is a tyrant that demands heart, brain, body, and soul. It reminds me of Dorothy and her entourage in Oz. The tin man represents the heart. The scarecrow represents the brain. The lion represents the body. And Dorothy represents the soul.
[00:09:18] So Rosa Bonheur had the courage of her conviction to become a horse of a different color. She used her traditional painting skills, but also transformed that into a life that was unlike anyone else's. I find her very inspiring and I hope you do too. As you go forward, driving your chariot with your creative force on the left, that you can encourage and let roam free with your nobility and your great ideas and your clarity on the right.
[00:09:46] I want you to think about what colors these horses might be.
[00:09:50] I was quite surprised to find some of them. You may know this, of course, of course. there are two basic pigments of horses
[00:09:57] uh, reddish brown. And black. And all the other combinations are just these two colors. And of course the absence of color, which is white.
[00:10:06] All the variations, depend on the horses, skin color, the main hair color. And the ends or the tips of the hair and then patches and different colorations. Determine the color of the horse.
[00:10:16] Some of the more interesting official names for colors are. Steel gray, iron gray, Rose Gray, which has a pink tint. Dapple gray. There's another color called flea bitten gray, which has little flex. And then other colors, Cremello, buckskin, Perlino, which is a shiny coat that looks pearlescent.
[00:10:36] Smokey black smoky cream . Blue dun. Red dun. Zebra dun. Champagne, mushroom silver dapple. varnish Roan. piebald or piebald skew bald. Splashed. Red Roan bay Roan. Brindle, flaxen, tigereye - you get the idea?
[00:10:55] I hope these three short episodes about horses have given you a chance
[00:10:59] to think about your soul, the chariot, the charioteer, the light horse and the dark horse, the wild one and the noble one. As you invent yourself, imagine yourself. How would you paint this picture that you have? Uh, glistening Perlino golden horse on the right. A dusky beautiful mushroom silver double .
[00:11:18] Leopard. On the left, it's up to you, but we often just don't consider all the options. When you listen to yourself and you know that you can become the painter, the artists that you want to be. Uh, in spite of the restrictions on your life, in spite of the obstacles.
[00:11:34] In fact, because of the obstacles, then life gets so much more interesting. Rosa Bonheur was a woman in Paris in the 19th century. She learned her trade and her skills. And then she made her way. The way she wanted to, she hung out with Cowboys and Indians. She painted animals that she loved. She had a pet lioness.
[00:11:54] Named Fathma. And just like the lion and the wizard of Oz. She had a medal for courage. [00:12:00] For the courage that it took to live the life that she wanted to live. I wish you the same. I wish you courage. Have a creatively courageous week.
Become a Sponsor of The Metaphor Mindset Podcast
If you are interested in becoming a sponsor (like the color Orange did), click the button to set up a meeting - we’ll talk about your business and how we can create an advertisement on my podcast for you - and an image and link on my site and in my newsletter, The Crux, to promote you and your work!
