Art Class - Rosa Bonheur

 

Today's Google Doodle honors the artist's 200th birthday.

Born in Bordeaux, France, Rosa started painting at a young age, encouraged by her father, an artist himself.  The family followed a Christian-socialist sect that promoted the education of women alongside men.

She became especially interested in painting animals, so her father would bring live animals in for her study.  At one point in her life, she had a lion, a lioness, a stag, a wild sheep, a gazelle, horses, and more.

In 1849, the French government commissioned her work, Ploughing in the Nivernais.

Her most famous work, The Horse Fair, was completed in 1855.

It is 8 feet tall and 16 feet wide.

This piece led to international fame and recognition.  She met Queen Victoria in Scotland, where she sketched Highland Shepherd, completed in 1859.

Around this time, she bought a home in Fontainebleau named Chateau de By, where she died in 1899.  The home is now a museum.

In 1893, she exhibited her work at the Palace of Fine Arts in Chicago.

She was the first female artist to receive Officer of the Order within the French Legion of Honour, bestowed in 1894.

It should also be noted, she received approval from police to wear trousers, wore her hair short, rode astride (rather than sidesaddle), and smoked cigarettes in public, much unlike her female peers of the time.  She was also openly lesbian, and had a relationship with American painter, Anna Elizabeth Klumpke.

This is Anna's painting of Rosa.

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