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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Rosa Bonheur Biography BONHEUR, ROSA (MARIE ROSALIE) (1822-99). A French artist, considered the most eminent woman painter of animals. She was born at Bordeaux, Oct. 22, 1822, the daughter of a drawing teacher who afterward became the director of the Free School of Design for girls in Paris. Her remarkable talent and repugnance to dressmaking, the avocation chosen for her by her father, finally moved him to place her in his own school, and she also studied under Cogniet; but it was mainly her own study of animals in their natural environments that developed her ability. At the age of 19 she first exhibited at the Salon "Goats and Sheep" and "Two Rabbits, and until 1855 she was represented annually. In 1845 she received a gold medal of the third class, and in 1818 a first-class medal. Her first great picture, deemed by some her best, "Ploughing in the Nivernais" (1849) , a commission from the state, is now in the Luxembourg. A summer in the Pyrenees, 1850, resulted in several important pictures. In her studies at the abattoirs on the outskirts of Paris, finding the attentions of the workmen disagreeable, she adopted man's attire, resembling the Breton, in which she henceforth painted. In 1853 she exhibited the famous "Horse Fair," which attracted widespread admiration. She offered it to her native town of Bordeaux for 15,000 francs, but the offer was not accepted, so she sold it in England for 40,000 francs, and it was finally purchased by Cornelius Vanderbilt for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City for 268,000 francs. A copy, retouched by the artist, is in the National Gallery in London. Another important work of her early period was the "Hay Harvest in Auvergne" (Luxembourg), in fine afternoon light. In 1856 Rosa Bonheur bought a Gothic château at By, near Fontainebleau, where she passed nearly all the remainder of her life. Here, in 1864, Napoleon III and the Empress Eugénie visited her, and the year following the Empress in person brought her the cross of the Legion of Honor. A visit to Scotland was the occasion of a number of Scottish subjects, such as "Ponies of the Isle of Skye" and "Sheep in a Boat" (1867). Among the most noteworthy of her remaining paintings are "Cattle and Sheep in Pasture" (1860); "Sheep in Repose" (1860); "Wagon with Six Horses" Wallace Collection, London); and "Foulaison," a troop of galloping horses-the masterpiece of her last period. In 1894 she received the officer's cross of the Legion of Honor, the first woman to achieve that distinction. In the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, are her "Deer in the Forest," "A Limier-Briquet Hound" (1877) , and "Weaning the Calves" (1879), and in the Public Library, New York, is her "Deer Drinking:" She died in Paris, May 25, 1899. As a painter she showed a sound and wholesome feeling for nature, not only in the modeling of her animals and in her spirited representations of action, but also in the truthful landscape setting in which she placed her subjects. Her drawing and composition are good; but the color is often hard, and the atmosphere is often imperfectly rendered. For her life and works, consult René Menard, in The Portfolio (London, 1875); René Peyrol, in the Art Annual (ib., 1900) ; Roger-Milès (Paris, 1900) ; and especially the monograph by Klampke (ib., 1908) , containing her autobiography and fine illustrations of her works. The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. III (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 506-507. |