Rosa Bonheur

(www.artnet.com 8-4-09)1822 Born: Bordeaux, France (March 16th) 1843 Awarded Third Class Medal a State Commission for a painting. Paris Salon. 1848 Gold Medal of the First Class. Paris Salon. 1865 Cross of the Legion of Honour With the exhibition of her 1853 painting "The Horse Fair," Rosa Bonheur was established as one of the greatest animal painters of the 19th century and the most renowned female artist of her generation. Bonheur [nee Marie-Rosalie Bonheur] was born in Bordeaux, France. Her father, Oscar-Raymond Bonheur (1796-1849), was a trained painter and taught the fundamentals of art to Rosa and her brothers Auguste, Isidore, and sister Juliette. All four siblings pursued careers as artists; Isidore (1827-1901) gained acclaim as a sculptor, but Bonheur would prove to be the most successful of the family. Her father was an important influence both socially and artistically; she was later quoted as saying of him: “To his doctrines I owe my great and glorious ambition for the sex to which I proudly belong and whose independence I shall defend until my dying day.” In her later career, she was known for attending horse fairs, slaughterhouses and even participating in dissections to gain the most thorough and realistic understanding of animal anatomy. Her exceptional attention to detail and form made her a favourite in the Realist and Naturalist schools. Bonheur’s painstaking method of making art involved several sketches and studies; this technique was a classical and meticulous approach. Her artwork was conservative and well received. Selected Exhibitions 1893 Chicago Words Colombian Exposition 1867 Paris Exposition Universelle 1862 Great Exhibit of London 1841 - 1843 Paris Salon. France. (http://www.answers.com/topic/rosa-bonheur 8-4-09)(b Bordeaux, 16 March 1822; d Thomery, nr Fontainebleau, 25 May 1899). French painter and sculptor. She received her training from her father, Raymond Bonheur (d 1849), an artist and ardent Saint-Simonian who encouraged her artistic career and independence. Precocious and talented, she began making copies in the Louvre at the age of 14 and first exhibited at the Salon in 1841. Her sympathetic portrayal of animals was influenced by prevailing trends in natural history (e.g. Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire) and her deep affinity for animals, especially horses. Bonheur's art, as part of the Realist current that emerged in the 1840s, was grounded in direct observation of nature and meticulous draughtsmanship. She kept a small menagerie, frequented slaughterhouses and dissected animals to gain anatomical knowledge. Although painting was her primary medium, she also sculpted, or modelled, studies of animals, several of which were exhibited at the Salons, including a bronze Study for a Bull (1843; ex-artist's col., see Roger-Mil?s, p. 35) and Sheep (bronze; San Francisco, CA, de Young Mem. Mus.). In 1845 she attracted favourable notice at the Salon from Th?ophile Thor?. In 1848 she received a lucrative commission from the State for Ploughing in the Nivernais (1849; Paris, Mus. d'Orsay), which, when exhibited the next year, brought her further critical and popular acclaim. Typical of the Realist interest in rural society manifested in the contemporary works of Gustave Courbet and Jean-Fran?ois Millet, Ploughing was inspired by George Sand's rustic novel La Mare au diable (1846). She exhibited regularly at the Salon until 1855. Her paintings sold well and were especially popular in Great Britain and the USA.(http://www.renoirinc.com/biography/artists/bonheur.htm 8-4-09)Rosa (Marie Rosalie) Bonheur was born March 16th 1822 in Bordeaux, France. She is widely acclaimed as an animal painter and was influenced by the work of the English artist, Landseer. Rosa Bonheur was one of the most renowned animal painters in history. Her earliest training was received from her father, a minor landscape painter, who encouraged her interest in art in general and in animals as her exclusive subject. He allowed her to keep a veritable menagerie in their home, including a sheep that is reported to have lived on the balcony of their sixth-floor Parisian apartment.Bonheur's unconventional lifestyle contributed to the myth that surrounded her during her lifetime. She smoked cigarettes in public, rode astride, and wore her hair short. To study the anatomy of animals, Bonheur visited the slaughterhouse; for this work, she favored men's attire and was required to obtain an official authorization from the police to dress in trousers and a smock.While radical in her personal life, Bonheur was artistically conservative. Henri Cain would later recall that she "was not only an exceedingly intelligent artist, but a very conscientious and hard-working one....She believed in honesty in art and ever desired to keep very close to nature." Bonheur's reputation grew steadily in the 1840's; she exhibited her animal paintings and sculptures at the Paris Salon regularly from 1841 to 1853. The Salons tended to support traditional styles, and most artists still sought to exhibit at the annual shows, as it was the primary way for their work to be seen by the public. In 1845 Bonheur won a third prize and in 1848 a gold medal.Because of this recognition from official sources, she was then awarded a commission from the French government to produce a painting on the subject of plowing. Plowing in Nivernais, exhibited at the Salon of 1849, firmly established her career in France. Bonheur later won international acclaim with her life size painting The Horse Fair exhibited at the 1853 Salon.Bonheur's popularity in England was assured after two versions of The Horse Fair were exhibited there, and Queen Victoria ordered a private viewing of the original at Windsor Castle. The artist's chief source of revenue in the 1860s and 1870s came from sales in England rather than from her native France. In 1894 she was the first woman to receive the Grand Cross of the French Legion of Honor.Sheep by the Sea illustrates Bonheur's lifelong interest in portraying farm animals in a straightforward manner, reinforcing her commitment to direct observation from nature. She has captured the essence of a flock of domestic sheep--calm, undisturbed, and complacent--settled in a meadow on the edge of a body of water.The Horse Fair (1835-55) and Weaning the Calves (1887) are both in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.(http://www.juliendupre.com/Rosa_Bonheur_Bio.html 8-4-09)Rarely during the nineteenth century did the artistic career and recognition of a woman eclipse that of her male counterparts. History recognizes few females from this period in the position of artistic authority, but Rosa Bonheur established herself as the foremost “animalier,” or animal painter, linked with landscape painting and the Realist tradition. Through contacts, exhibitions, and reproductions disseminated worldwide, Rosa Bonheur’s work was well known throughout Europe and America. Her unusual ways attracted considerable public attention and she harnessed this interest throughout her life and established a niche, commercially and artistically, for her work, becoming one of the most original figures of the 19th century.Marie-Rosalie Bonheur was born March 16th, 1822 in Bordeaux, France. She was one of four children, each trained as an artist. Most influential in her life, both artistically and socially, was her father, Oscar-Raymond Bonheur, also a trained artist and devout socialist. During Rosa’s childhood, Raymond was involved with the Saint-Simonians, a political group established in the small town of Menilmontant. The Saint-Simonians advocated a form of socialism which expressed a desire for the equality of women and men and abolishment of class distinctions, among other goals. While radical in its political and social nature, the Bonheur family supported Raymond in this idealist pursuit of social unity and amelioration. Raymond’s association with this group contributed to Rosa’s liberal outlook and defiant personality leading to her dressing as a male, cutting her hair short, and smoking cigarettes and cigars much to the disdain of and the misunderstanding of many. Her actions and personality have placed her in a decisive position in early feminism. She wrote that “To [my father’s] doctrines I owe my great and glorious ambition for the sex to which I proudly belong and whose independence I shall defend until my dying day.” (Britta C. Dwyer, "Rosa Bonheur and Her Companion-Artist: What Made Anna Klumpke Special?", in Rosa Bonheur: All Nature's Children, ex. cat. New York: Dahesh Museum, 1998, pg. 65) More important for Rosa’s work was Raymond’s respect for the writings of Georges Sand and Felicité Robert de Lamennais, who believed that every living creature had a soul, creating a sense of respect within Rosa for the animals of the natural world. She would later own many animals, including horses, lions, and even an otter. Her love of animals translated into amazingly precise and interpretive depictions of their very nature and physiognomy. With these ideas fresh in her mind and after failed attempts at boarding school and an apprenticeship with a dressmaker, Rosa began her artistic training with her father at the age of thirteen. She never attended formal art classes such as the traditional École des Beaux-Arts (women were not allowed at this time), but progressed under the artistic tutelage of her father. She began her training with the standard procedures of copying engravings and plaster casts, drawing still-lifes, and later copying paintings of the masters in the Louvre. This was typical training for art students but certainly atypical for a female. Though several of these copies were quickly sold, Raymond considered this insufficient training and encouraged his children to sketch directly from nature. In 1842, the family moved to the Rue Rumford, a section of Paris close to fields, farms, and animals, where Rosa and her siblings could develop their immense talent through realistic drawing and painting. She was said to also frequent “masculine” areas such as horse fairs and the slaughterhouses of Paris in order to gain a deeper understanding of the ranges of animal emotion and physiognomy, however gruesome the latter may have been. Rosa also gained more training and further developed her talent while working with her siblings on her father’s commissions. Raymond continued the tradition of the family workshop, which had fallen out of favor in the 19th century. Raymond’s career as an artist burgeoned and in order to meet the demand for his works, he began to employ his children’s assistance to complete commissions. From this point, the Bonheur children established their own artistic careers but continued to assist one another in order to complete commissions. While untraditional, Rosa gained important training through her lessons with her father and as a collaborator (on his commissions). From the beginning of her career Rosa was most interested in depicting animals and the natural world and rarely deviated from that. She debuted at the Paris Salon in 1841 with Chèvres et Moutons (Goats and Sheep) and Lapins (Rabbits Nibbling Carrots). This began a long and illustrious continuum of works exhibited at the Salon. By the age of 23, Rosa had already exhibited eighteen works at the Paris Salon. Early in her career, she also exhibited sculptures at the Salon, though decided to abandon this as her brother, Isidore, was a gifted sculptor and Rosa did not want to overshadow him. In 1848 she was given her second medal, this time a gold medal. Upon this success, she began sketching for her Labourage Nivernais (Plowing in the Nivernais), said to have been commissioned by the state, which was later exhibited at the 1849 Salon. It was also during this year that Rosa’s father died and she succeeded him as directress of the École Gratuite de Dessins des Jeunes Filles, while also establishing her own studio with her companion, Nathalie Micas, at 56 rue de l’Ouest.In 1851, Bonheur established a relationship with the house of Goupil in Paris. Throughout the next years her painted images would be reproduced by Lefèvre in London and Goupil and Peyrol in Paris, disseminating her name and image, thereby increasing her fame beyond the scope of Salon visitors and clients. The pinnacle of Rosa’s artistic career was Le Marché aux Chevaux (The Horse Fair), also begun in 1851 and submitted to the 1853 Salon after 18 months of preparatory work. In her book entitled Rosa Bonheur: With a Checklist of Works in American Collections, Rosalia Shriver describes the monumental nature of this submission: When it was finally finished and exhibited at the Salon of 1853, its creator was only 31 years old. Yet no other woman had ever achieved a work of such force and brilliance; and no other animal painter had produced a work of such size.After the Salon of 1853, Rosa was declared “hors de concours”, exempting her from the necessity of submitting further Salon entries for acceptance. She did exhibit Fenaison d’Auvergne (Haymaking in the Auvergne) at the Salon of 1855 for which she was awarded another gold medal. This was her last entry until the Exposition Universelle of 1867. Le Marché aux Chevaux (The Horse Fair) established Rosa’s international fame, and was sent to Ghent, Belgium where the important Belgian art dealer Ernest Gambart noticed and later purchased it. Gambart had an office in London and convinced Rosa and Nathalie into coming to London to tour with the painting, solidifying her prestige as an internationally acclaimed animalier. During this period, with her success in England and the United States, Rosa became fascinated with the United States, the “new world.” Her interest was first piqued in 1854 when the painter George Catlin and a group of Indians paraded through the streets of Paris. It was later solidified in 1889 when Buffalo Bill Cody came to the Exposition Universelle with his Wild West show and his band of Indians in their colorful costumes. She had a fondness for the United States and its perceived vast frontiers and wild animals. Her interest in the United States would later translate into an important and special relationship between her and Anna Klumpke, a young artist from California, who became Rosa's special companion until her death.Rosa found her fame rather distressing. In 1859, she retreated from Paris and established permanent residence at By, near the Forest of Fontainebleau. While working near the Barbizon painters, she did not associate with them. During her stay at By she greeted many people of great prestige, such as the Empress Eugènie, and also opened her home to others during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. With her ardently political nature, Rosa was ready to fight for the cause of her country but with considerable persuasion she did not engage in actual combat. Rosa continued to work fervently on sketches, paintings, and commissions for the next forty years until her death on May 25th, 1899. She was seventy-eight years old. After Rosa’s death, Anna Klumpke went through her studio and found 892 paintings and several boxes of drawings, all sorted and dated. The items were sold shortly after her death, grossing over 2 million francs, an immense sum at the time. Rosa Bonheur will be remembered for her fidelity to nature and her animals. Her understanding of and love for the subject was projected through her luminous and realistic depictions, while at the same time she did not trivialize the subject. She will also be remembered for her fiery independent character. A later discussion of Rosa Bonheur by Paul-Louis Hervier in the 1908 La Nouvelle Revue wrote that Rosa was:Simple, welcoming, of an extreme frankness, she was loved by all; because of her good heart, her generosity, her simplicity, which were not studied but spontaneous, she acquired the well deserved reputation of a beneficent fairy. Rosa Bonheur’s illustrious career garnered her many prestigious accolades usually reserved only for men. The following is a list of some of her international honors: honorary member of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and of the Société des Artistes Belges (1863); Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur, the first woman artist to receive this honor, and the Cross of San Carlos of Mexico, awarded to her by Emperor Maximilian and Empress Carlotta (1865); membership in the Académie des Beaux-Arts of Antwerp, Belgium (1868); Commander’s Cross of the Royal Order of Isabella (by Spain’s Alphonso XII), Catholic Cross and the Leopold Cross presented by Leopold of Belgium (1880); honorary member of the Royal Academy of Watercolorists of London and Mérite des Beaux-Arts de Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (1885); and Officier de la Légion d’Honneur, the first woman to be honored in this position (1894).Rosa Bonheur’s work can now be found in many museums around the world, including the following renowned museums:Reading Public Museum, Reading, PAThe Cleveland Museum of ArtThe Dahesh MuseumThe LouvreThe Metropolitan Museum of ArtThe Minneapolis Institute of ArtsThe Musée des Beaux-Arts, BordeauxThe Musée National du Chateau, FontainebleauThe National Gallery, London