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Born: 1822
Died: 1899
Summary of Rosa Bonheur
When Rosa Bonheur was a youngster, her father’s conviction in a version of socialism that abolished class and gender distinctions contributed to her liberal perspective and defiant nature. So even though she came into the world when women weren’t allowed to attend art school, Bonheur didn’t succumb to the stereotype of being a housewife. Having been encouraged and supported by her father, she began painting regularly when she was a teenager. She went on to win numerous important awards usually reserved for men, and she eventually became well-known and affluent on her own.
With Edwin Landseer, Rosa Bonheur was the greatest French “animalier” of her time, and perhaps of all time, alongside her English counterpart. Although Bonheur’s work was rooted in landscape painting and the Realist movement, it also spoke of a broader relationship between the natural world, art, and society. Ruskin wrote in 1847 that “by rejecting nothing; believing nothing,” “the truth” then “emerges” freely and organically from painting the natural world.
Even animals have a soul and need attention, care, and visibility no matter how big or small or dark or light they are. This ‘fact’ is a subtle moral lesson of equality to be learned. Rosa Bonheur referred to herself as ‘married to her craft,’ and she wasn’t lying. She paints them as if they were her own children, and she does so with an unwavering commitment and an incredible tenderness. Throughout her life, she was a pioneer in the development of an alternative family structure, dedicating her time to the care and creation of animals and artworks.
When it comes to feminism, Rosa Bonheur is a pioneer. She was completely self-sufficient, relying solely on her own income from painting to sustain herself. Bonheur came out as a lesbian at a young age and lived with another woman for the rest of her life, which was unprecedented at the time. She also refused to wear traditional female clothing, and in 1852, she applied for a police licence to work in men’s clothing (demonstrating how radical this was at the time). Because of her role model status, Georgia O’Keeffe and Frida Kahlo might look up to her as an inspiration for their own aesthetic affirmations of equality in the twentieth century.
When Bonheur went to the abattoir to study animal anatomy, he referred to it as “…wading in pools of blood…”. Deeper than mere sentimentality, the artist’s fascination with the world around her is evident in her paintings and other works. In other words, the message is that art and medicine are complementary fields in which to explore the essence of what it is to be alive. It’s important to understand how the human body works in order to understand how it feels. Bonheur was devoted to learning about the inner workings of animals so that he might communicate a more accurate image from the outside.
Before and concurrently with the widespread introduction of photography, her art satisfied an acute yearning for realism. However, Rosa Bonheur’s works also have a subtle symbolism at work. All of her subjects are treated equally, regardless of their size or colour. Bonheur makes no distinctions in terms of value in her work based on species. To some extent, the implication here is that she may be a trailblazer for racial and gender equality, and a dreamer of a society free of barriers and binary classifications.
Bonheur’s work, despite being born in France, is perfectly suited to the English values of the time. Art became more accessible to the general public during the reign of Queen Victoria, who was a personal fan of animal paintings. Literature and philosophy, as well as art, were emphasised in order to use a more accessible language and reach all people, not just the affluent and the powerful. It was Bonheur’s love of telling stories and her enthusiasm for animals at a time when the British nation was constructing facilities for lost and abandoned pets in Battersea and building pet cemeteries that made her famous throughout her lifetime.
Biography of Rosa Bonheur
Childhood of Rosa Bonheur
When Oscar-Raymond and Sophie Bonheur had four children, Rosa was the eldest of their two girls and two boys. Rosa’s mother Sophie was a patient piano teacher who raised her two older brothers and sister. As it turns out, all four young people grew up to be extraordinarily accomplished and well-rounded artists. Rosa was six years old when her family relocated from Bordeaux to Paris in 1829.
She was a hyperactive child who loved drawing as soon as she could handle a pencil, but struggled with reading and writing at first. Using this method, her mother taught her daughter the alphabet by asking her to sketch an animal for each letter. One day she had a brilliant idea…She ordered me to draw an ass opposite the A, and a cow in front of the C, and so on…” Rosa said. She always credited her mother and this particular point in her life for inspiring Bonheur’s lifelong affection for and understanding of animals, as she had done following her mother’s clever manner.
This contrasted sharply with the tranquilly of Bordeaux’s countryside. St. Simonism, which adhered to Utopian socialist ideas and advocated for worldwide harmony and equality of sex, was Bonheur’s father’s preferred ideology. My father always pushed the idea of co-education, and this was the beginning of what I think to be the first pronounced move in that direction.
I was normally the leader in all the games, and I didn’t hesitate to use my fists from time to time; a masculine bent was given to my existence.” Even though he strongly supported women’s rights, Oscar-Raymond became the director of Paris’ only free painting school for girls in 1803 with official funding, a position he held for some months. They took over the school after their father’s death.
A cholera outbreak was raging across France when Bonheur was just ten. Her father was occupied with political and philosophical discussions, and her mother was worn out. Remaining indoors as much as possible was the family’s best defence against the virus. They all lived, except for Sophie, who was 36 when she passed away from a long illness.
At this point, Rosa’s father tried to send her to a boarding school run by Mme. Gilbert, but the exercise failed miserably, with the artist reporting, “…The Gilberts refused to harbour any longer such a noisy creature as I and sent me back home in disgrace…my tomboy manners had an unfortunate influence on my companions, who soon grew turbulent… “
Despite his daughter’s disruptive behaviour at school, Raymond Bonheur believed it was best to begin his daughter’s art training himself, knowing that traditional art institutions did not allow women to participate. To satisfy their shared regard for animals, he also studied the writings of George Sands and Felicité Robert Lamennais, who both advocated for the idea that everything has a soul. Bonheur started working in her father’s workshop at the age of 13 to perform her daily tasks..
Drawings of plaster casts, engravings, and still lifes were all part of her education. Bonheur once set out to study cherries on her own when her father was away. The moment he returned, her father was astounded by her talent and pushed her to focus on painting scenes of nature and wildlife.
Early Life of Rosa Bonheur
One of just a few pupils under the age of twenty-five, Bonheur’s father sent her to study art in Paris’s Louvre at the age of 14. At the same time, she attended the Louvre to copy the paintings of Dutch masters including Paulus Potter, Wouvermans, and Van Berghem, which she characterised as “…a mess of all sorts of odd and ends…”
When she was 19, her father rented an apartment in which she was allowed to keep a collection of tiny animals, including a goat, hens, quail, canaries, and finches. As a result of the apartment’s location on Rue Rumford, Bonheur and her three younger siblings were able to hone their artistic abilities by spending time with farms, gardens, and other animals. To get a deeper grasp of the gamut of animal emotions and physiognomy, she is claimed to have visited horse fairs and slaughterhouses in Paris, despite the terrible nature of these places.
When Nathalie was just 12 years old and had a bad case of the flu, her friend Monsieur Micas commissioned her father to paint a portrait of her. The younger girl quickly became a part of Bonheur’s life, and he was happy to join the Micas family. Nathalie assisted the aspiring artist by cleaning the studio, sewing, and caring for her personal items.
Two paintings by Bonheur, Goats and Sheep and Rabbits Nibbling Carrots, were shown at the Paris Salon in 1841, the artist’s first exhibition. After then, she showed every year until 1855, displaying animal studies and landscapes, influenced by the Barbizon School artists, including Theodore Rousseau and Camille Corot. With a steady flow of sales and enough money, Bonheur was able traverse the country studying sheep, cows, and bulls in 1843.
Rosa had already shown eighteen pieces at the Paris Salon by the time she was 23. Even though she used to exhibit sculptures at the Salon, she eventually stopped doing so since her brother, Isidore, was an accomplished sculptor who had no need for competition. As a result of her gold medal-winning performance at the Salon in 1848, the French government commissioned Rosa to paint a big canvas honouring the history of animal-powered field ploughing.
While working on Ploughing in the Nivernais, which was displayed at the 1849 Salon, she began a series of sketches. She took over as director of the École Gratuite de Dessins des Jeunes Filles from her father, who died that year. At 56 rue de l’Ouest, she co-founded a studio with her friend, Nathalie Micas.
Mid Life of Rosa Bonheur
Bonheur’s affiliation with the Goupil family in Paris began in 1851. Lefèvre, Goupil, and Peyrol would continue to duplicate her painted works for the next few years, thereby spreading her popularity beyond the Salon visitors and patrons. Le Marché aux Chevaux, Bonheur’s magnum opus, was the height of his artistic career (The Horse Fair).
The project began in 1851 and was completed in 18 months before being submitted to the 1853 Salon. As Rosalia Shriver explains in her book ‘Rosa Bonheur: With a Checklist of Works in American Collections,’ this entry is monumental: “Only 31-years-old when it was completed and shown in the Salon of 1853. This is the first time that a woman has produced a work of such power and brilliance, and no other animal painter has made a work of this size.”
Rosa was recognised “hors de concours” following the Salon of 1853, removing her from the need to submit additional Salon submissions for admission. During the Salon of 1855, she exhibited Fenaison d’Auvergne (Haymaking in the Auvergne) and received another gold medal for her work on the subject. In preparation for the Exposition Universelle de 1867, she submitted one final work.
Bonheur’s international renown had been cemented by the Marché aux Chevaux. In fact, even Queen Victoria had invited her to visit at this point. In England, Rosa had the opportunity to meet Charles Eastlake, the Royal Academy’s president, and other important Britons, such as writer and critic John Ruskin and fellow British “animalier” Edwin Landseer.
For her paintings, she also visited the English and Scottish countryside, where she studied many types of British animals, which she would use again and again in the future. “…superb country in spite of its sad mists; for I prefer what is green…I love the Scotch mists, cloud swept mountains, the dark heather—I love them with all my heart…” As she arrived back in Paris, Rosa was confident in her career and financially secure.
England’s middle class flourished after the 1850s. As a result, artists reaped the rewards of their hard work. Ernst Gambart, an art dealer of the time, purchased numerous original paintings and their copyrights so that he could create reproductions of the works.. Bonheur was one of the painters Gambart collaborated with on a regular basis.
Bonheur’s continuous financial success prompted her to open a new studio. During Bonheur’s time spent collecting creatures she wished to live with, the Micas family kept watch over the studio’s progress. “the window of her studio, with splendid light, facing this courtyard where her heifer, her goats, her sheep, and her mare, Margot, can live freely…add…all the fowl of a Normandy farm,” said critic Armand Baschet in 1854.
Bonheur’s passion for exotic animals occasionally brought the family to its knees. In the Pyrenees, Bonheur’s brother-in-law remembers Bonheur’s sister bringing back an otter, which “…had a nasty habit of leaving the water tank and crawling between the sheets of Mme. Micas,” Bonheur said.
Though they both had demanding professional lives, Bonheur and her sister Juliette continued to teach at the drawing school that their father had started. Rosa used her father’s method of direct observation for a course she called “the science of sketching.”
At this time, she also invited prominent socialites and artists to her studio, including her longtime friend Paul Chardin. Chardin was aware that Bonheur’s work was widely valued by the British and that she, too, was a big admirer of British painters. The artist Landseer was particularly beloved by Chardin, who possessed a large collection of his engravings, according to a letter she wrote in 1903.
After 1855, French reviewers were dismayed by Bonheur’s seeming lack of interest in the salons and France, while the English aristocracy was now purchasing most of her paintings.
Bonheur was bothered by the attention paid to her life and the sensation of her popularity growing exponentially. The outcome of this was that she left Paris behind in the summer of 1859 and moved to the small village of By near the Fountainebleu Forest, where she bought a chateau, house, and farm. With Nathalie and Mme. Micas by her side, she erected a spacious studio and a number of pens for her growing collection of animals.
Late Life of Rosa Bonheur
For Bonheur, her solitary existence in the village of By was the perfect place to be. She would get up early in the morning and go on a stroll to find a spot in the woods where she could work until it got dark. Except for Chardin, who remained a close friend and came to sketch frequently, she saw fewer other painters than in previous years.
At night, Bonheur’s family and friends would gather around the fireplace and smoke cigarettes while chatting. Her visit by the Empress Eugenie on June 15, 1865, when she was granted the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor established by Napoleon, was a complete surprise for her. As long as Nathalie Micas was there, Bonheur knew he could always count on her. “…how painful it is to be separated…for she had borne with me the mortifications…she alone knew me, and I, her only friend, knew what she was worth.” Rosa wrote to a friend after Nathalie’s death in 1889.
It was in 1893 that Rosa regained her usual vitality and made the trip to America to visit the Women’s Building at the Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition. Rosa had received a request from a young American female artist in 1889 to paint her portrait, but she was unable to complete the project at the time. She was able to meet with Anna Klumpke, a Boston-based portrait and genre painter, after returning to France from the United States.
During his time in France as a student, Klumpke replicated Plowing in the Nivernais for a class assignment. When Klumpke was a child, she possessed a “Rosa” doll and was already enamoured with Bonheur. The two women were smitten with one another in a flash. In August of 1898, Bonheur and Klumpke formed a living arrangement.
It was agreed that Klumpke would both paint and write the biography of Bonheur. Klumpke was Bonheur’s official portraitist and painter in her final years as a writer, diarist, and painter. She produced a book titled “Rosa Bonheur: Her Life and Work” in 1908, which was based on some of Bonheur’s own writings and correspondence, including her journal, letters, sketches, and other memorabilia.
Although her own family and Bonheur’s disapprove, Klumpke continued to administer Bonheur’s estate for the remainder of her life against their disdain. Klumpke presided over the sale of 892 paintings and countless other works of art, the majority of which sold for 72 million francs in 1900 after Bonheur appointed her the estate’s successor.
Klumpke created the Rosa Bonheur Memorial Art School and the Musée Rosa Bonheur in By in 1924, respectively. It was released in 1940, and Klumpke died in 1942. Her ashes were later interred at Père Lachaise Cemetery with Rosa Bonheur and Nathalie Micas.
Until Rosa Bonheur, few women in the arts had achieved financial success as professional painters. In Europe throughout the nineteenth century, art was seen as a lady’s hobby, done at home, but because of her father’s influence and training, Bonheur made it her job. An early feminist because of her strong belief in women’s equality, Bonheur wore men’s garb to work, rode horses with her backs to the saddle, and even smoked.
Bonheur’s effect on other female artists seems to skip a generation and jump right into the twentieth century because she paints animals rather than ladies. Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt, who followed Bonheur immediately in time, generally highlighted the constraints of household existence in a patriarchal culture.
When it came to bucking established norms of gender roles and creating art that they truly wanted to, Georgia O’Keeffe and Claude Cahun of the early twentieth century were the first artists to do so. It is remarkable that Rosa Bonheur shared this mindset with the female artists of the twentieth century who collectively transformed and modified fundamentally the freedom and rights of women over time by dressing like males.
Bonheur was unconventional in her lifestyle, but her ways of working en plein air were still a little out of the ordinary at the time. In France, she was a fan of the Barbizon School, a group of artists who painted their landscapes outside. The bulk of nineteenth-century artists, on the other hand, continued to work exclusively in their studios.
For much of her career, Bonheur painted outside with her easel and canvases, which influenced the next major shift in art history: Impressionism. Such views were shared by Rosa Bonheur as well as Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro, who championed en plein air painting as a way to create authentic resemblance and awe-inspiring light.
Rosa Bonheur Facts
What was Rosa Bonheur famous for?
Rosa Bonheur, whose full name was Marie-Rosalie Bonheur, was a French painter and sculptor best known for her meticulous depictions of animals. She was born on March 16, 1822, in Bordeaux, France, and died on May 25, 1899, in Château de By, near Fontainebleau.
What gender is Rosa Bonheur?
She was female, and her work has made her one of the most recognisable and profitable female painters of the 19th century.
What were Rosa Bonheur political or religious beliefs?
Rosa was reared by Saint-Simons, a religious organisation that emphasised women’s education and held a vision of a female messiah.
Did Rosa Bonheur get married?
No Rosa Bonheur never married, and when asked about why she never married, she said “I assure you I have never had the time to consider the subject.”
What does the horse fair represent?
Realistic portrayal of people, places, and things was a popular painting movement in the late 1800s and early 1900s. From the 1860s until the 1970s, art, music, and literature underwent a period of experimentation known as “modernism.” Women were traditionally barred from attending horse auctions like the one depicted in The Horse Fair.
How old was Rosa Bonheur when she died?
77 (Born 1822 Died 1899)
Famous Art by Rosa Bonheur
Plowing in the Nivernais
1849
A huge oil painting commissioned by the French government and shown in 1849 was Bonheur’s first commercial triumph. Twelve tranquil cows peacefully till the field in preparation for future planting, a subject that she often painted.
Using the land, animals, and landscape as a focus, she paints a beautiful picture of rural life, work, and tradition that has stood the test of time. In its modest realism, the painting is reminiscent of Camille Corot and Gustave Courbet’s work. Bonheur, like the Realists, sees man and nature as coexisting harmoniously in order to reap the benefits of the land.
In Bonheur’s superb use of the diagonals, the bright composition is surrounded by the viewer. From the foreground to the middle area, the ploughed field’s firm, straight edge recedes. Romantic canvases are a good comparison because of the artist’s epic use of scale and perspective. With their strong strides and subtle colour variations, the two groups of six sparkling Charolais draw the eye’s attention.
To Bonheur’s knowledge, the Dutch masters of the 17th and 18th centuries were equally well-known for their peaceful, wistful landscapes. At the time, the artist had this to say, “Because I enjoy being among animals, I decided to pursue a career as an animal painter. It was a simple matter of observing an animal and drawing it as it sat in a certain stance.”
The Horse Fair
1855
It measures eight by sixteen feet and is one of Bonheur’s most recognisable works. During the 1850s and 1851s, she spent two hours a week at the Paris horse market sketching draught horses, some in simple line drawings and others in exquisite detail.
This dramatic scene showcases her ability to capture the raw force, beauty, and strength of the wild creatures in motion. It was George Stubbs, Théodore Gericault, Eugène Delacroix, and ancient Greek sculpture that the artist took inspiration from while coming up with the final design for The Horse Fair; she dubbed it her own “Parthenon frieze.” Rows of muscularly sculpted rearing writhing horses adorned the Parthenon.
The pounding, wild beasts handled by calm, expert handlers are surrounded by a swirl of black and light that draws the observer into the movement and energy of the scenario.
Compositionally, Bonheur employs a strong diagonal line (similar to the one he used in Plowing Into the Nivernais) where the brooding sky and treetops meet. Prospective purchasers on the far right are able to observe the organised chaos from the safety of a wooded slope. The unadorned foreground and the airy perspective of the Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital outline in the backdrop counterbalance the centre ground’s intensity.
It is apparent that the artist has a keen interest in both animal and human psychology despite some critics’ claims that this piece is just an academic exercise. Bonheur claims the following in his book: “The horse, like the human being, is both the most beautiful and the most sad of all living things; the only difference is that the human being is unattractive because of his vice or property. He is solely to blame for his deterioration, whilst the horse is merely a tool in his hands.” The artist’s first fame outside of her native country was gained through the distribution of prints of this picture across Europe and the United States.
Spanish Muleteers Crossing the Pyrenees
1857
Although the picture is dominated by a large herd of animals, the dynamic composition features one of Bonheur’s most stunning vistas. This picture is a “Hymn to Work,” as characterised by one critic, as a group of mule-drawn waggons travel across the highlands. For the artist’s “…reverence for the dignity of labour and her ideals of human beings in harmony with nature,” the paler distant mountains provide a backdrop. As with many Victorian paintings, including Lawrence Alma-work, Tadema’s vivid colours and donkey dressage evoke exotic and distant countries.
In a loose triangle configuration, the herd of three juvenile muleteers makes its way down a narrow mountainous pass in the Aspe Mountain toward the camera. In fact, the entire composition is built up of triangles formed by lines of perspective going to the central standing figure.
As with the lighter accents of paint on the animals and rutted ground, the two poised men’s white clothes helps draw the spectator towards the composition’s centre. It’s the little things, like the mules’ bells and tufted ornamentation, that make the scene come to life. Triangular shapes of foggy grey, snowy peaks in the distance repeat the design.
A handle close to old mastership was lauded by French admirers, according to biographer Dore Ashton, for the painting’s “most exquisite and most significant scenery.”
Bonheur’s paintings following this one are all about animals, yet the protagonist in this scene looks to be a person. In the first three epic canvases, the artist makes it clear that she is interested in the interconnectedness between humans and animals, while later in her work she decides that it is when animals stand alone that they transmit the most powerful messages to human beings.
Sheep by the Sea
1865
A summer journey to the Scottish Highlands in 1855 left Bonheur mesmerised by the scenery, prompting him to paint this little work, which measures less than 13″ by 18″. The docile creatures are pictured snuggled together on the ground overlooking a waterway.
Detail-oriented paintings such as this one show a strong commitment to anatomical correctness and close observation of nature in their depictions of animals, rocks, and grasses. The painting is vastly different from the artist’s prior work, both in terms of scale and subject matter. The image seems to say so much more because it is more personal and devoid of people.
Two ewes and a growing lamb can be seen in this photo. In her whole career, Bonheur has returned again and time again to the same scene of a flock of sheep gathered on the rocks. This piece and William Holman Hunt’s Our English Coasts (Strayed Sheep) (pre-Raphaelite) can be directly compared (1852). Although the subject is similar, Hunt’s depiction of it is more explicit. It appears as though the sheep are being reminded of the importance of being a good and moral person by straying toward the cliff edge. Bonheur’s creatures sit serenely, yet when shown images of the “sheep and the goats,” it’s impossible not to think of righteousness. It is possible that Bonheur is suggesting that the terms “good” and “evil” are too simplistic, as two ewes, or a black and a white sheep (in other comparable works) coexist peacefully in her works.
It’s worth noting that Empress Eugenie of France had commissioned Bonheur’s Sheep by the Sea before to his showing it at the Salon in 1867.
French Empress Marie Antoinette, like her contemporary Queen Victoria, the upper classes of England and France, was a fan of animal paintings. When Paul-Louis Hervier wrote in 1908 about the artist Bonheur, he called her “…simple, welcoming…of an extraordinary frankness” and claimed that she was “liked by all; because of her good heart, her generosity…her simplicity which were not studied but natural.”
Weaning the Calves
1879
A mother and her calves are depicted in this little picture, which measures less than six feet square. Despite being isolated by a wall of rotting wood, boulders, and other debris, the brave cow keeps watch over her five babies. Fence-line weaning is depicted here, where the calves can see and hear their mother, but are forced to forage for food and water for themselves. As a parent, you have a responsibility to help your child develop a strong sense of self-reliance.
Romantic sensibility is evident in the mountains in the backdrop and in the rough and tumble daily life depicted for livestock in the foreground. A classic example of Bonheur’s meticulous attention to detail can be found. The rocky terrain, splintered trees, and sprinklings of snow create an unwelcoming and unfriendly atmosphere, but the animals appear calm and confident as they wait for their separation to be resolved.
The artist may have derived inspiration for the painting from one of the many sketches and studies she made while touring the United Kingdom in the 1850s. Thoré-Bürger, who wrote “she exhibits ten of her notable works…all belonging to the English aristocracy except the Sheep that Empress of France has saved from being transported across the sea…
After the success of The Horse Fair… pictures have their reddish tone, undecided touch, glassy and mannered effect…”, criticised her for her affinity for Scottish and English landscapes, which she took exception to. Her open-mindedness was unfazed by such scepticism, and she went on to win international praise for her work regardless of national boundaries.
The Lion at Home
1881
Beginning in the 1870s, Bonheur dedicated himself to studying and sketching lions, eventually becoming an expert on the animal’s unique motions. She had her own collection of animals, including lions, so the beautiful specimens, no matter how unusual, had some basis in fact.
During the Victorian era, Edwin Lanseer in Britain had access to and painted lions from the exotic animal trade. This display of exotic animals was customary for displaying the Empire and showcasing Europe’s global reach.
It is not imperalialist to Bonheur, but rather a question of what it means to be a one-man show and what it means to be part of an entire pack. In addition to several prides and family groups of lions, the artist also created a large number of remarkable individual portraits of these powerful and majestic animals.
Portrait of Colonel William F. Cody
1889
In her later years, she developed an interest in American culture, indigenous peoples, and the Wild West. Colonel Cody, better known as “Buffalo Bill,” is seen on his favourite white horse in this little artwork, which measures less than eighteen by sixteen inches. For more than seven months, Buffalo Bill played in Paris with his famous Wild West Show. The scenario, which is set in a picturesque setting, depicts the harmonious coexistence of man and animal as a powerful force.
Permission was granted to visit a camp for the Wild West Show that covered 36 acres near the Bois de Boulogne and Eiffel Tower at this time. She took advantage of the chance and visited nearly every day to sketch and observe. She ran across Colonel Cody and the international cast of characters he’d brought to entertain the Parisians.
She discussed the show and the predicament of the indigenous peoples “That way, I could go around their shelters at my leisure. I sat in on family gatherings, conversed with warriors, and studied the bisons, horses, and weapons to the best of my ability. This tragic race has a special place in my heart, and I’m saddened to see it fading away in the face of white usurpers.”
The Colonel and his beloved horse are prominently displayed in this image, giving it a sense of authority. The artist’s years of study of the horse’s anatomy and movement are clearly visible. Rosa, according to Dore Ashton’s biography, was a source of advice “You need to know what is going on behind the surface. You don’t want your animal to appear as though it’s made out of mat instead of fur…” This picture has a strong sense of dignity because of the artist’s mastery of brushwork, contrasts between light and dark tones, and subtle colour shifts.
Colonel William F. Cody riding his exquisite white horse is one of the most well-known and often reproduced images from the Wild West Show’s approximately seventeen paintings and numerous drawings. Due to the more progressive treatment of women in the United States, the artist attracted a large number of American patrons. Bonheur stated, “…If America marches in the vanguard of modern civilization…it is because of their magnificently intelligent style of bringing up their girls and the respect they have for their women.”
BULLET POINTED (SUMMARISED)
Best for Students and a Huge Time Saver
- When Rosa Bonheur was a youngster, her father’s conviction in a version of socialism that abolished class and gender distinctions contributed to her liberal perspective and defiant nature.
- So even though she came into the world when women weren’t allowed to attend art school, Bonheur didn’t succumb to the stereotype of being a housewife.
- Having been encouraged and supported by her father, she began painting regularly when she was a teenager.
- She went on to win numerous important awards usually reserved for men, and she eventually became well-known and affluent on her own.
- With Edwin Landseer, Rosa Bonheur was the greatest French “animalier” of her time, and perhaps of all time, alongside her English counterpart.
- Although Bonheur’s work was rooted in landscape painting and the Realist movement, it also spoke of a broader relationship between the natural world, art, and society.
- Ruskin wrote in 1847 that “by rejecting nothing; believing nothing,” “the truth” then “emerges” freely and organically from painting the natural world.
- Even animals have a soul and need attention, care, and visibility no matter how big or small or dark or light they are.
- This ‘fact’ is a subtle moral lesson of equality to be learned.
- Rosa Bonheur referred to herself as ‘married to her craft,’ and she wasn’t lying.
- She paints them as if they were her own children, and she does so with an unwavering commitment and an incredible tenderness.
- Throughout her life, she was a pioneer in the development of an alternative family structure, dedicating her time to the care and creation of animals and art works.
- When it comes to feminism, Rosa Bonheur is a pioneer.
- She was completely self-sufficient, relying solely on her own income from painting to sustain herself.
- Bonheur came out as a lesbian at a young age and lived with another woman for the rest of her life, which was unprecedented at the time.
- She also refused to wear traditional female clothing, and in 1852, she applied for a police licence to work in men’s clothing (demonstrating how radical this was at the time).
- Because of her role model status, Georgia O’Keeffe and Frida Kahlo might look up to her as an inspiration for their own aesthetic affirmations of equality in the twentieth century.
- When Bonheur went to the abattoir to study animal anatomy, he referred to it as “…wading in pools of blood…”.
- Deeper than mere sentimentality, the artist’s fascination with the world around her is evident in her paintings and other works.
- In other words, the message is that art and medicine are complementary fields in which to explore the essence of what it is to be alive.
- It’s important to understand how the human body works in order to understand how it feels.
- Bonheur was devoted to learning about the inner workings of animals so that he might communicate a more accurate image from the outside.
- Before and concurrently with the widespread introduction of photography, her art satisfied an acute yearning for realism.
- However, Rosa Bonheur’s works also have a subtle symbolism at work.
- All of her subjects are treated equally, regardless of their size or colour.
- Bonheur makes no distinctions in terms of value in her work based on species.
- To some extent, the implication here is that she may be a trailblazer for racial and gender equality, and a dreamer of a society free of barriers and binary classifications.
- Bonheur’s work, despite being born in France, is perfectly suited to the English values of the time.
- Art became more accessible to the general public during the reign of Queen Victoria, who was a personal fan of animal paintings.
- Literature and philosophy, as well as art, were emphasised in order to use a more accessible language and reach all people, not just the affluent and the powerful.
- It was Bonheur’s love of telling stories and her enthusiasm for animals at a time when the British nation was constructing facilities for lost and abandoned pets in Battersea and building pet cemeteries that made her famous throughout her lifetime.
- Biography of Rosa Bonheur
- Childhood of Rosa BonheurWhen Oscar-Raymond and Sophie Bonheur had four children, Rosa was the eldest of their two girls and two boys.
- Rosa’s mother Sophie was a patient piano teacher who raised her two older brothers and sister.
- As it turns out, all four young people grew up to be extraordinarily accomplished and well-rounded artists.
- Rosa was six years old when her family relocated from Bordeaux to Paris in 1829.
- She was a hyperactive child who loved drawing as soon as she could handle a pencil, but struggled with reading and writing at first.
- Using this method, her mother taught her daughter the alphabet by asking her to sketch an animal for each letter.
- One day she had a brilliant idea…She ordered me to draw an ass opposite the A, and a cow in front of the C, and so on…” Rosa said.
- She always credited her mother and this particular point in her life for inspiring Bonheur’s lifelong affection for and understanding of animals, as she had done following her mother’s clever manner.
- This contrasted sharply with the tranquilly of Bordeaux’s countryside.
- St. Simonism, which adhered to Utopian socialist ideas and advocated for worldwide harmony and equality of sex, was Bonheur’s father’s preferred ideology.
- My father always pushed the idea of co-education, and this was the beginning of what I think to be the first pronounced move in that direction.
- I was normally the leader in all the games, and I didn’t hesitate to use my fists from time to time; a masculine bent was given to my existence.”
- Even though he strongly supported women’s rights, Oscar-Raymond became the director of Paris’ only free painting school for girls in 1803 with official funding, a position he held for some months.
- They took over the school after their father’s death.
- A cholera outbreak was raging across France when Bonheur was just ten.
- Her father was occupied with political and philosophical discussions, and her mother was worn out.
- Remaining indoors as much as possible was the family’s best defence against the virus.
- They all lived, except for Sophie, who was 36 when she passed away from a long illness.
- At this point, Rosa’s father tried to send her to a boarding school run by Mme.
- Gilbert, but the exercise failed miserably, with the artist reporting, “…The Gilberts refused to harbour any longer such a noisy creature as I and sent me back home in disgrace…my tomboy manners had an unfortunate influence on my companions, who soon grew turbulent… ” Despite his daughter’s disruptive behaviour at school, Raymond Bonheur believed it was best to begin his daughter’s art training himself, knowing that traditional art institutions did not allow women to participate.
- To satisfy their shared regard for animals, he also studied the writings of George Sands and Felicité Robert Lamennais, who both advocated for the idea that everything has a soul.
- Bonheur started working in her father’s workshop at the age of 13 to perform her daily tasks.. Drawings of plaster casts, engravings, and still lifes were all part of her education.
- Bonheur once set out to study cherries on her own when her father was away.
- The moment he returned, her father was astounded by her talent and pushed her to focus on painting scenes of nature and wildlife.
- Early Life of Rosa BonheurOne of just a few pupils under the age of twenty-five, Bonheur’s father sent her to study art in Paris’s Louvre at the age of 14.
- At the same time, she attended the Louvre to copy the paintings of Dutch masters including Paulus Potter, Wouvermans, and Van Berghem, which she characterised as “…a mess of all sorts of odd and ends…” When she was 19, her father rented an apartment in which she was allowed to keep a collection of tiny animals, including a goat, hens, quail, canaries, and finches.
- As a result of the apartment’s location on Rue Rumford, Bonheur and her three younger siblings were able to hone their artistic abilities by spending time with farms, gardens, and other animals.
- To get a deeper grasp of the gamut of animal emotions and physiognomy, she is claimed to have visited horse fairs and slaughterhouses in Paris, despite the terrible nature of these places.
- When Nathalie was just 12 years old and had a bad case of the flu, her friend Monsieur Micas commissioned her father to paint a portrait of her.
- The younger girl quickly became a part of Bonheur’s life, and he was happy to join the Micas family.
- Nathalie assisted the aspiring artist by cleaning the studio, sewing, and caring for her personal items.
- Two paintings by Bonheur, Goats and Sheep and Rabbits Nibbling Carrots, were shown at the Paris Salon in 1841, the artist’s first exhibition.
- After then, she showed every year until 1855, displaying animal studies and landscapes, influenced by the Barbizon School artists, including Theodore Rousseau and Camille Corot.
- With a steady flow of sales and enough money, Bonheur was able traverse the country studying sheep, cows, and bulls in 1843.Rosa had already shown eighteen pieces at the Paris Salon by the time she was 23.
- Even though she used to exhibit sculptures at the Salon, she eventually stopped doing so since her brother, Isidore, was an accomplished sculptor who had no need for competition.
- As a result of her gold medal-winning performance at the Salon in 1848, the French government commissioned Rosa to paint a big canvas honouring the history of animal-powered field ploughing.
- While working on Ploughing in the Nivernais, which was displayed at the 1849 Salon, she began a series of sketches.
- She took over as director of the École Gratuite de Dessins des Jeunes Filles from her father, who died that year.
- At 56 rue de l’Ouest, she co-founded a studio with her friend, Nathalie Micas.
- Mid Life of Rosa BonheurBonheur’s affiliation with the Goupil family in Paris began in 1851.
- Lefèvre, Goupil, and Peyrol would continue to duplicate her painted works for the next few years, thereby spreading her popularity beyond the Salon visitors and patrons.
- Le Marché aux Chevaux, Bonheur’s magnum opus, was the height of his artistic career (The Horse Fair).
- The project began in 1851 and was completed in 18 months before being submitted to the 1853 Salon.
- As Rosalia Shriver explains in her book ‘Rosa Bonheur: With a Checklist of Works in American Collections,’ this entry is monumental: “Only 31-years-old when it was completed and shown in the Salon of 1853.
- This is the first time that a woman has produced a work of such power and brilliance, and no other animal painter has made a work of this size.
- “Rosa was recognised “hors de concours” following the Salon of 1853, removing her from the need to submit additional Salon submissions for admission.
- During the Salon of 1855, she exhibited Fenaison d’Auvergne (Haymaking in the Auvergne) and received another gold medal for her work on the subject.
- In preparation for the Exposition Universelle de 1867, she submitted one final work.
- Bonheur’s international renown had been cemented by the Marché aux Chevaux.
- In fact, even Queen Victoria had invited her to visit at this point.
- In England, Rosa had the opportunity to meet Charles Eastlake, the Royal Academy’s president, and other important Britons, such as writer and critic John Ruskin and fellow British “animalier” Edwin Landseer.
- For her paintings, she also visited the English and Scottish countryside, where she studied many types of British animals, which she would use again and again in the future. “…
- superb country in spite of its sad mists; for I prefer what is green…I love the Scotch mists, cloud swept mountains, the dark heather—I love them with all my heart…” As she arrived back in Paris, Rosa was confident in her career and financially secure.
- England’s middle class flourished after the 1850s.
- As a result, artists reaped the rewards of their hard work.
- Ernst Gambart, an art dealer of the time, purchased numerous original paintings and their copyrights so that he could create reproductions of the works.. Bonheur was one of the painters Gambart collaborated with on a regular basis.
- Bonheur’s continuous financial success prompted her to open a new studio.
- During Bonheur’s time spent collecting creatures she wished to live with, the Micas family kept watch over the studio’s progress. “…
- the window of her studio, with splendid light, facing this courtyard where her heifer, her goats, her sheep, and her mare, Margot, can live freely…add…all the fowl of a Normandy farm,” said critic Armand Baschet in 1854.
- Bonheur’s passion for exotic animals occasionally brought the family to its knees.
- In the Pyrenees, Bonheur’s brother-in-law remembers Bonheur’s sister bringing back an otter, which “…had a nasty habit of leaving the water tank and crawling between the sheets of Mme.
- Micas,” Bonheur said. Though they both had demanding professional lives, Bonheur and her sister Juliette continued to teach at the drawing school that their father had started.
- Rosa used her father’s method of direct observation for a course she called “the science of sketching.”
- At this time, she also invited prominent socialites and artists to her studio, including her longtime friend Paul Chardin.
- Chardin was aware that Bonheur’s work was widely valued by the British and that she, too, was a big admirer of British painters.
- The artist Landseer was particularly beloved by Chardin, who possessed a large collection of his engravings, according to a letter she wrote in 1903.
- After 1855, French reviewers were dismayed by Bonheur’s seeming lack of interest in the salons and France, while the English aristocracy was now purchasing most of her paintings.
- Bonheur was bothered by the attention paid to her life and the sensation of her popularity growing exponentially.
- Late Life of Rosa BonheurFor Bonheur, her solitary existence in the village of By was the perfect place to be.
- She would get up early in the morning and go on a stroll to find a spot in the woods where she could work until it got dark.
- Except for Chardin, who remained a close friend and came to sketch frequently, she saw fewer other painters than in previous years.
- At night, Bonheur’s family and friends would gather around the fireplace and smoke cigarettes while chatting.
- Her visit by the Empress Eugenie on June 15, 1865, when she was granted the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor established by Napoleon, was a complete surprise for her.
- As long as Nathalie Micas was there, Bonheur knew he could always count on her. “…
- how painful it is to be separated…for she had borne with me the mortifications…she alone knew me, and I, her only friend, knew what she was worth.”
- Rosa wrote to a friend after Nathalie’s death in 1889.It was in 1893 that Rosa regained her usual vitality and made the trip to America to visit the Women’s Building at the Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition.
- Rosa had received a request from a young American female artist in 1889 to paint her portrait, but she was unable to complete the project at the time.
- She was able to meet with Anna Klumpke, a Boston-based portrait and genre painter, after returning to France from the United States.
- During his time in France as a student, Klumpke replicated Plowing in the Nivernais for a class assignment.
- When Klumpke was a child, she possessed a “Rosa” doll and was already enamoured with Bonheur.
- The two women were smitten with one another in a flash.
- In August of 1898, Bonheur and Klumpke formed a living arrangement at By.
- It was agreed that Klumpke would both paint and write the biography of Bonheur.
- Klumpke was Bonheur’s official portraitist and painter in her final years as a writer, diarist, and painter.
- She produced a book titled “Rosa Bonheur: Her Life and Work” in 1908, which was based on some of Bonheur’s own writings and correspondence, including her journal, letters, sketches, and other memorabilia.
- Although her own family and Bonheur’s disapprove, Klumpke continued to administer Bonheur’s estate for the remainder of her life against their disdain.
- Klumpke presided over the sale of 892 paintings and countless other works of art, the majority of which sold for 72 million francs in 1900 after Bonheur appointed her the estate’s successor.
- Klumpke created the Rosa Bonheur Memorial Art School and the Musée Rosa Bonheur in By in 1924, respectively.
- It was released in 1940, and Klumpke died in 1942.
- Her ashes were later interred at Père Lachaise Cemetery with Rosa Bonheur and Nathalie Micas.
- Until Rosa Bonheur, few women in the arts had achieved financial success as professional painters.
- In Europe throughout the nineteenth century, art was seen as a lady’s hobby, done at home, but because of her father’s influence and training, Bonheur made it her job.
- An early feminist because of her strong belief in women’s equality, Bonheur wore men’s garb to work, rode horses with her backs to the saddle, and even smoked.
- Bonheur’s effect on other female artists seems to skip a generation and jump right into the twentieth century because she paints animals rather than ladies.
- Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt, who followed Bonheur immediately in time, generally highlighted the constraints of household existence in a patriarchal culture.
- When it came to bucking established norms of gender roles and creating art that they truly wanted to, Georgia O’Keeffe and Claude Cahun of the early twentieth century were the first artists to do so.
- It is remarkable that Rosa Bonheur shared this mindset with the female artists of the twentieth century who collectively transformed and modified fundamentally the freedom and rights of women over time by dressing like males.
- Bonheur was unconventional in her lifestyle, but her ways of working en plein air were still a little out of the ordinary at the time.
- In France, she was a fan of the Barbizon School, a group of artists who painted their landscapes outside.
- The bulk of nineteenth-century artists, on the other hand, continued to work exclusively in their studios.
Information Citations
En.wikipedia.org, https://en.wikipedia.org/.
