Secrets of Paris – Buffalo Bill, the hero of Porte Maillot

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In 1889, William F. Cody presented an astonishing equestrian show in France: the “Wild West Show”… Its setting? The town of Neuilly!

By Baudouin Eschapasse

Buffalo Bill, center, surrounded by the Indians he recruited for his show shortly before leaving for France.
© DR

Published on 04/12/2022 at 3:00 p.m.

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AHanging in the last room of the retrospective* that the Musée d’Orsay is currently devoting to Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899), three small paintings intrigue visitors. There are represented unexpected characters under the brush of this French artist. These are portraits of Colonel William Frederick Cody and two Sioux horsemen: Rocky Bear and Red Shirt. It is not in the United States that the animal painter posed Buffalo Bill and his Indian trackers. She never crossed the Atlantic. It was these American models who came to her in Paris.

On April 27, 1889, Cody embarked in New York, aboard an American liner bound for Le Havre. He took dozens of horses, twenty bison, but also and above all more than fifty old…

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