Marie-Rosalie Bonheur was a professional artist who worked in the animalistic genre. She was born in Bordeaux in 1822. She began to draw before she could speak. Rosa learned to work with a pencil and brush from her father Oscar-Raymond Bonheur, a good landscape and portrait painter. But when she was a child she already chose her own direction in painting — the depiction of animals.
Until the 16th century, animal art was a secondary genre, and from the 1700s it became an independent one: work from nature became very popular. In the 19th century, the general desire for accuracy of representation had a great influence on the development of the genre. Rosa Bonheur turned out to be one of its outstanding representatives.
When the girl was six, her family moved to Paris. At fourteen, Rosa began to copy paintings in the Louvre, including those of the animalists Paulus Potter and Karel Dujardin. Bonheur visited slaughterhouses and natural history museums and befriended zoologists to study animal anatomy and osteology, the skeleton, the structure of muscles, and bones. The artist later used the sketches made on the basis of such studies for her paintings and sculptures.
At the age of 19, Bonheur displayed her paintings at the Salon de Paris, the most prestigious exhibition, for the first time. A few years later she won a third class medal there. And after some more time — the first medal and, following that, a state order for 3000 francs for the painting “Ploughing in the Nivernais”.
The piece was painted by 1859 and again received the top mark at the Paris Salon of that season. The artist attracted a great deal of attention. Bonheur’s most famous work, the monumental “The Horse Fair”, brought her international fame and recognition. It was admired by the Queen of England. Bonheur was the first woman to be awarded the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor, France’s highest award.
Bonheur’s success allowed her to move to Chateau de By near Fontainebleau, where she lived for the rest of her life. The chateau housed bulls, horses, mouflons, deer, fallow deer, boars, sheep and other animals, which served as a living model for the artist’s works. Now a museum dedicated to Rosa Bonheur is located there.
Until the 16th century, animal art was a secondary genre, and from the 1700s it became an independent one: work from nature became very popular. In the 19th century, the general desire for accuracy of representation had a great influence on the development of the genre. Rosa Bonheur turned out to be one of its outstanding representatives.
When the girl was six, her family moved to Paris. At fourteen, Rosa began to copy paintings in the Louvre, including those of the animalists Paulus Potter and Karel Dujardin. Bonheur visited slaughterhouses and natural history museums and befriended zoologists to study animal anatomy and osteology, the skeleton, the structure of muscles, and bones. The artist later used the sketches made on the basis of such studies for her paintings and sculptures.
At the age of 19, Bonheur displayed her paintings at the Salon de Paris, the most prestigious exhibition, for the first time. A few years later she won a third class medal there. And after some more time — the first medal and, following that, a state order for 3000 francs for the painting “Ploughing in the Nivernais”.
The piece was painted by 1859 and again received the top mark at the Paris Salon of that season. The artist attracted a great deal of attention. Bonheur’s most famous work, the monumental “The Horse Fair”, brought her international fame and recognition. It was admired by the Queen of England. Bonheur was the first woman to be awarded the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor, France’s highest award.
Bonheur’s success allowed her to move to Chateau de By near Fontainebleau, where she lived for the rest of her life. The chateau housed bulls, horses, mouflons, deer, fallow deer, boars, sheep and other animals, which served as a living model for the artist’s works. Now a museum dedicated to Rosa Bonheur is located there.
