Rosa Bonheur
A female animaliero on an unconventional path to success
Rosa Bonheur (born Marie-Rosalie Bonheur; 16 March 1822 – 25 May 1899) was a French artist known best as a painter of animals (Animalier). Bonheur was widely considered to be the most famous female painter of the nineteenth century.
Precocious and gifted, she was successful from a very young age; she exhibited at the Salon for the first time at the age of 19. Bonheur’s love for animals, especially horses, inspired her art and working from direct observation of nature, she kept a small menagerie, frequented slaughterhouses, and dissected animals to gain anatomical knowledge.
Her masterpiece, The Horse Fair (1853; New York, Met), a depiction of the Parisian horse market led to glorious recognition at the Paris Salon. It subsequently toured Great Britain and the USA and was widely disseminated as a print.
Bonheur lived a rather unconventional life – she wore her hair short, smoked and lived with Nathalie Micas, her female partner. Despite 'painting like a man' as some critical voices claimed, she was the first female artist who received the Grand Cross Legion of Honour in 1865 and, 30 years later, the first woman ever to become an Officer of the Legion of Honours.
Sources: Unspoken Artists, The National Gallery
