Rosa Bonheur. An Unconventional Path

Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899) Bonheur was the oldest of four artistic children born to the French landscape painter Raymond Bonheur. Rosa began sketching and sculpting animals at an early age and used her interest in animals to help her learn to read and write. She would sketch an animal for each letter of the alphabet and perfected her form by visiting butcher shops and cattle markets in Paris to achieve anatomically correct likenesses. Her 1853 masterpiece, The Horse Fair, brought her worldwide recognition, and she was the first female artist to be awarded the cross of the Legion of Honour in France. She retired at the edge of the Fontainbleu Forest with a menagerie that included gazelles, lions and other exotic animals.