Bonheur, Rosa

Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)

bo-ner or bo-nur, Rosa (1822-1899), a distinguished French artist. She inherited her talent and received instruction from her father, an artist of Bordeaux. From the first, pictures of animals were her forte. Goats and Sheep, and Two Rabbits were the first to attract attention. In 1855 the Haymaking Season in Auvergne was shown at the Universal Exposition in Paris, and The Horse Fair was exhibited in London. The latter is the picture by which Miss Bonheur is known in America. She was anxious that it should be owned by her native city and offered it to Bordeaux for $6,000. She afterward sold it in London for $20,000, and subsequently it was bought by Cornelius Vanderbilt for the Metropolitan Gallery of New York . Rosa Bonheur was a woman of fine appearance. She is said to have gone about fairs and markets dressed in a man's clothes to escape observation. This was one way she had of studying horses at first hand. In 1892 she sold a picture of Horses Threshing Corn for $60,000. Ten horses are shown in life size, making the largest animal picture ever painted. Her admirers were naturally enough sporting characters, but there can be no doubt of her genius in this kind of art. "No jockey knew a horse better than she." Her study was at Fontainebleau, France. During the siege of Paris, 1870-1, strict orders were issued to the German soldiery not to molest the home of Rosa Bonheur. See Millet ; Millais ; Corot Bonhomme Richard. See Jones ; John Paul 2026 Editor's Note: Rosa Bonheur needed a police permit to wear trousers — legally required of women in Paris — so that she could work in slaughterhouses and horse markets studying anatomy. She became the first woman awarded the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour, and The Horse Fair now hangs in New York's Metropolitan Museum. (Ed: BR 2026-07-02)