Marie rosalie bonheur biography definition

Rosa Bonheur

French painter and sculptor (–)

Rosa Bonheur (born Marie-Rosalie Bonheur; 16 March – 25 May ) was a French artist known best as a painter of animals (animalière). She also made sculptures in a realist style.[1] Her paintings include Ploughing in the Nivernais,[2] first exhibited at the Paris Salon of , and now in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, and The Horse Fair (in French: Le marché aux chevaux),[3] which was exhibited at the Salon of (finished in ) and is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

Bonheur was widely considered to be the most famous female painter of the nineteenth century.[clarification needed][4]

It has been claimed that Bonheur was openly lesbian, as she lived with her partner Nathalie Micas for over 40 years until Micas's death, after which she lived with American painter Anna Elizabeth Klumpke.[5] However, others remark that nothing supports this claim.[6]

Early development and artistic training

Bonheur was born on 16 March in Bordeaux, Gironde, the oldest child in a family of artists.[7] Her mother was Sophie Bonheur (née Marquis), a piano teacher; she died when Rosa was eleven.

Her father was Oscar-Raymond Bonheur, a landscape and portrait painter who encouraged his daughter's artistic talents.[8] Though of Jewish origin,[9] the Bonheur family adhered to Saint-Simonianism, a Christian socialist sect that promoted the education of women alongside men.

Bonheur's siblings included the animal painters Auguste Bonheur and Juliette Bonheur, as well as the animal sculptor Isidore Jules Bonheur. Francis Galton used the Bonheurs as an example of the eponymous "Hereditary Genius" in his essay.[10]

Bonheur moved to Paris in at the age of six with her mother and siblings, after her father had gone ahead of them to establish a residence and income there.

By family accounts, she had been an unruly child and had a difficult time learning to read, though she would sketch for hours at a time with pencil and paper before she learned to talk.[11] Her mother taught her to read and write by asking her to choose and draw a different animal for each letter of the alphabet.[12] The artist credited her love of drawing animals to these reading lessons with her mother.[13]

At school she was often disruptive, and was expelled numerous times.[14] After a failed apprenticeship with a seamstress at the age of twelve, her father undertook her training as a painter.

Her father allowed her to pursue her interest in painting animals by bringing live animals to the family's studio for studying.[15]

Following the traditional art school curriculum of the period, Bonheur began her training by copying images from drawing books and by sketching plaster models.

As her training progressed, she made studies of domesticated animals, including horses, sheep, cows, goats, rabbits and other animals in the pastures around the perimeter of Paris, the open fields of Villiers near Levallois-Perret, and the still-wild Bois de Boulogne.[16] At fourteen, she began to copy paintings at the Louvre.[8] Among her favorite painters were Nicolas Poussin and Peter Paul Rubens, though she also copied the paintings of Paulus Potter, Frans Pourbus the Younger, Louis Léopold Robert, Salvatore Rosa and Karel Dujardin.[16]

She studied animal anatomy and osteology in the abattoirs of Paris and dissected animals at the École nationale vétérinaire d'Alfort, the National Veterinary Institute in Paris.[17] There she prepared detailed studies that she later used as references for her paintings and sculptures.

During this period, she befriended the father-and-son comparative anatomists and zoologists, Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire and Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire.[18]

Early success

A French government commission led to Bonheur's first great success, Ploughing in the Nivernais, exhibited in and now in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.[19] Her most famous work, the monumental The Horse Fair, was completed in and measured eight by sixteen feet ( by &#;m).[20] It depicts the horse market held in Paris, on the tree-lined boulevard de l'Hôpital, near the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, which is visible in the painting's background.

There is a reduced version in the National Gallery in London.[21] This work led to international fame and recognition; that same year she traveled to Scotland and met Queen Victoria, who admired Bonheur's work. In Scotland, she completed sketches for later works including Highland Shepherd, completed in , and The Highland Raid, completed in These pieces depicted a way of life in the Scottish highlands that had disappeared a century earlier, and they had enormous appeal to Victorian sensibilities.[citation needed]

Bonheur exhibited her work at the Palace of Fine Arts and The Woman's Building at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois.[22] In and she developed a friendship with American sculptor Cyrus Dallin who was studying in Paris.

Together they traveled to Neuilly outside of Paris to sketch the animals and cast of Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show at their encampment.[23] In Bonheur painted Cody on horseback. Dallin's work from this period "A Signal of Peace" would also be displayed in Chicago in and be the first major step in his career.

Though she was more popular in England than in her native France, she was decorated with the French Legion of Honour by Empress Eugénie in , and was promoted to Officer of the Order in [24] She was the first female artist to be given this award.[15][25]

Patronage and the market for her work

Bonheur was represented by the art dealer Ernest Gambart (–).

In he brought Bonheur to the United Kingdom,[27] and he purchased the reproduction rights to her work.[28] Many engravings of Bonheur's work were created from reproductions by Charles George Lewis (–), one of the finest engravers of the day.

Marie rosalie bonheur biography definition us history The masterful handling of the motion and swirl of dark and light surrounding the pounding, unruly beasts controlled by calm, masterful handlers pulls the viewer into the energy and action of the scene. Bongard, David L awrence. She usually began her day at dawn, walking to find a suitable place in the forest where she could work until dusk. Following her return to France from America however, she was feeling better and able to meet with Anna Klumpke who was a portrait and genre painter from Boston.

In her success enabled her to move to the Château de By near Fontainebleau, not far from Paris, where she lived for the rest of her life. The house is now a museum dedicated to her.

Personal life and legacy

Women were often only reluctantly educated as artists in Bonheur's day, and by becoming such a successful artist she helped to open doors to the women artists who followed her.[29]

Bonheur was known for wearing men's clothing;[30] she attributed her choice of trousers to their practicality for working with animals (see Rational dress).[31]

She lived with her first partner, Nathalie Micas, for over 40 years until Micas' death, and later began a relationship with the American painter Anna Elizabeth Klumpke.[32] At a time when lesbianism was regarded as animalistic and deranged by most French officials, Bonheur's outspokenness about her personal life was groundbreaking.[33]

In a world where gender expression was policed,[34] Bonheur broke boundaries by deciding to wear trousers, shirts and ties, although not in her painted portraits or posed photographs.

She did not do this because she wanted to be a man, though she occasionally referred to herself as a grandson or brother when talking about her family; rather, she identified with the power and freedom reserved for men.[35] It also broadcast her sexuality at a time where the lesbian stereotype consisted of women who cut their hair short, wore trousers, and chain-smoked.

Rosa Bonheur did all three. Bonheur never explicitly said she was a lesbian, but her lifestyle and the way she talked about her female partners suggest this.[36]

From until , women in Paris, France were technically forbidden from wearing trousers without permission from police, with only a few exceptions.

Enforcement of this largely stopped during World War I and after, but in Bonheur's time it was still an issue.[37][38] In the s, Bonheur had to ask permission from the police to wear trousers, as this was her preferred attire to go to the sheep and cattle markets to study the animals she painted.[39]

Bonheur, while taking pleasure in activities usually reserved for men (such as hunting and smoking), viewed her womanhood as something far superior to anything a man could offer or experience.

She viewed men as stupid and mentioned that the only males she had time or attention for were the bulls she painted.[34]

Having chosen to never become an adjunct or appendage to a man in terms of painting, she decided she would be her own boss and that she would lean on herself and her female partners instead. She had her partners focus on the home life while she took on the role of breadwinner by concentrating on her painting.

Bonheur's legacy paved the way for other lesbian artists who didn't favour the life society had laid out for them.[40]

Bonheur died on 25 May , at the age of 77, at Thomery (By), France.[7] She was buried together with Nathalie Micas ( – 24 June ), her lifelong companion and lover, at Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris.

Klumpke was Bonheur's sole heir after her death,[41] and later joined Micas and Bonheur in the same cemetery upon her death. Bonheur, Micas, and Klumpke's collective tombstone reads, "Friendship is divine affection".[42] Many of her paintings, which had not previously been shown publicly, were sold at auction in Paris in [43][44]

Along with other realist painters of the 19th century, for much of the 20th century Bonheur fell from fashion, and in a critic described Ploughing in the Nivernais as "entirely forgotten and rarely dragged out from oblivion"; however, that same year it was part of a series of paintings sent to China by the French government for an exhibition titled "The French Landscape and Peasant, –".[45] Since then her reputation has been somewhat revived.

Rosa Bonheur Memorial Park is a pet cemetery located in Elkridge, Maryland, established in , and actively operated until

Art historian Linda Nochlin’s essay Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?, considered a pioneering essay for both feminist art history and feminist art theory,[46] contains a section about and titled "Rosa Bonheur."

One of Bonheur's works, Monarchs of the Forest, sold at auction in for just over $,[47]

In homage to the painter, four Parisian guinguettes bear the name Rosa Bonheur.

The first opened in in the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont. It is mentioned at length by Virginie Despentes in her series of novels Vernon Subutex. The second in on the banks of the Seine at the Port des Invalides, the third in in Asnières-sur-Seine and the fourth in in the Bois de Vincennes, home of the Rosa Bonheur Modern Team (RBMT) of various sports teams and a pep band.

Each of the four locations of Rosa Bonheur is home to a multilingual pop choir, collectively known as "Viens Chanter Bonheur," which is led by musician and ceramic artist Damien Bousquet.

On 16 March , Google honoured Bonheur with a Doodle to mark the bicentennial of her birth.[48] The Doodle reached five countries: the United States, Ireland, France, Iceland and India.[49]

Biographical works

The first biography of Bonheur was published during her lifetime: a pamphlet written by Eugène de Mirecourt, Les Contemporains: Rosa Bonheur, which appeared just after her Salon success with The Horse Fair in [50] Bonheur later corrected and annotated this document.[citation needed]

The book Women Painters of the World (assembled and edited by Walter Shaw Sparrow) was subtitled "from the time of Caterina Vigri, –, to Rosa Bonheur and the present day".

The second account was written by Anna Klumpke, Bonheur's companion in the last year of her life. Klumpke's biography, published in as Rosa Bonheur: sa vie, son oeuvre, was translated in by Gretchen Van Slyke and published as Rosa Bonheur: The Artist's (Auto)biography, so-named because Klumpke had used Bonheur's first-person voice.[51]

Reminiscences of Rosa Bonheur, edited by Theodore Stanton (the son of Elizabeth Cady Stanton), was published in London and New York in It includes numerous correspondences between Bonheur and her family and friends, in which she describes her art-making practices.[52]

List of works

  • Ploughing in the Nivernais,
  • The Horse Fair, –55
  • Haymaking in the Auvergne, –55
  • The Highland Shepherd,
  • A Family of Deer,
  • Changing meadows (Changement de pâturages),
  • Spanish muleteers crossing the Pyrenees (Muletiers espagnols traversent les Pyrénées),
  • Weaning the Calves,
  • Relay Hunting,
  • Portrait of William F.

    Cody,

  • The Monarch of the herd,

Gallery

See also

References

  1. ^Carol Strickland; John Boswell (). The Annotated Mona Lisa: A Crash Course in Art History from Prehistoric to Post-Modern. Andrews McMeel Publishing. p.&#; ISBN&#;.
  2. ^"Musée d'Orsay: Rosa Bonheur Labourage nivernais".

    . 25 March Archived from the original on 4 April Retrieved 24 October

  3. ^"Rosa Bonheur &#; The Horse Fair". The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  4. ^Janson, H. W., Janson, Anthony F. History of Art. Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers. 6th edition. ISBN&#;, page
  5. ^"10 Famous Female Painters Every Art Lover Should Know".

    My Modern Met. 30 August Retrieved 16 October

  6. ^"Rich, Famous and Then Forgotten: The Art of Rosa Bonheur". The New York Times. 17 October Retrieved 12 February
  7. ^ abKuiper, Kathleen. "Rosa Bonheur", Encyclopædia Britannica Online, Retrieved 23 May
  8. ^ abHeather McPherson ().

    "Bonheur, (Marie-)Rosa". Bonheur, (Marie-)Rosa [Rosalie]. doi/gao/article.T ISBN&#;.

  9. ^Bus, Lawrence (24 May ). "The Realism of Rosa Bonheur".

    Marie rosalie bonheur biography definition ap When Bonheur was only ten a cholera epidemic was sweeping through France. French painter, famous for her naturalistic depictions of animals, who was one of the most successful women artists of the 19th century. Following her first exhibition, her fame and reputation continued to grow in the s as she exhibited at the Salon regularly until , winning third in and a gold medal in Nathalie helped the budding artist by tending to her clothing, sewing, and cleaning the studio.

    Jewish Currents. Archived from the original on 10 January Retrieved 9 January

  10. ^Galton, Francis. Hereditary Genius: An Inquiry into its Laws and Consequences. Second edition. (London: MacMillan and Co, ), p. Original
  11. ^Mackay, James, The Animaliers, E.P. Dutton, Inc., New York,
  12. ^Rosalia Shriver, Rosa Bonheur: With a Checklist of Works in American Collections (Philadelphia: Art Alliance Press, ) (It must be said that, as a reference source this book is itself riddled with inaccuracies and mis-attributions but it accords with the consensus account on this matter.)
  13. ^Klumpke, Anna ().

    Rosa Bonheur: The Artist's [Auto] Biography. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. p.&#; ISBN&#;.

  14. ^Theodore Stanton, Reminiscences of Rosa Bonheur (New York: D. Appleton and company, ), Theodore Stanton, Reminiscences of Rosa Bonheur (London: Andrew Melrose, ).
  15. ^ abGaze, Delia, ed.

    (). Dictionary of Women Artists. Vol.&#;I. London and Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers. pp.&#;– ISBN&#;.

  16. ^ abBoime, Albert. "The Case of Rosa Bonheur: Why Should a Woman Want to be More Like a Man?", Art History v. 4, December , p.
  17. ^Wild Spirit: The Work of Rosa Bonheur by Jen Longshaw
  18. ^Ashton, Dore and Denise Browne Hare.

    Rosa Bonheur: A Life and a Legend, (New York: Viking, , pp.

  19. ^"Rosa Bonheur: Labourage nivernais". Musée d'Orsay. Archived from the original on 4 April Retrieved 24 October
  20. ^"The Horse Fair at Albright Knox Gallery". Archived from the original on 25 June Retrieved 27 October , sketch for the London version; the sketch for the New York version is in the Ludwig Nissen Foundation, see: C.

    Steckner, in: Bilder aus der Neuen und Alten Welt. Die Sammlung des Diamantenhändlers Ludwig Nissen, , p. and hived 10 October at the Wayback Machine

  21. ^The Horse Fair, National Gallery
  22. ^Nichols, K. L. "Women's Art at the World's Columbian Fair & Exposition, Chicago ". Retrieved 24 July
  23. ^Francis, Rell ().

    Marie rosalie bonheur paintings: Gambart established a close working arrangement with Bonheur among other artists. I would simply study an animal and draw it in the position it took, and when it changed to another position I would draw that. Photography Toggle child menu Expand. 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 as his sister she did not want to overshadow him.

    Cyrus E. Dallin Let Justice Be Done. Cyrus Dallin Art Museum. pp.&#;27, 39– LCCN&#;: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

  24. ^"Base Léonore, recensement des récipiendaires de la Légion d'honneur". .
  25. ^Great women artists. Phaidon Press. p.&#; ISBN&#;.
  26. ^Stammers, Tom (5 November ).

    "Twenty Kicks in the Backside". London Review of Books42 (21): 17–

  27. ^Christiane, Weidemann (). 50 women artists you should know. Larass, Petra., Klier, Melanie, Munich: Prestel. ISBN&#;. OCLC&#;
  28. ^"Ernest Gambart". .
  29. ^Stanton, Theodore ().

    Reminiscences of Rosa Bonheur (with twenty-four full-page illustrations and fifteen line drawings in the text. A. Melrose. p.&#;

  30. ^Britta C. Dwyer, "Bridging the gap of difference: Anna Klumpke's "union" with Rosa Bonheur", Out of context. (New York: Greenwood Press, ), p. ; Laurel Lampela, "Daring to be different: a look at three lesbian artists", Art Education v no.

    2 (March ), p. and Gretchen Van Slyke, "The sexual and textual politics of dress: Rosa Bonheur and her cross-dressing permits", Nineteenth-Century French Studies v. 26 no. (Spring/Summer ) p.

    Gustave courbet She was acclaimed during the 19th-century, particularly in Europe. She boldly defied societal expectations by wearing trousers, a choice for practicality over conformity. Early Life. One of the most famous and financially successful French female artists in the 19th century, Rosa Bonheur, was a significant contributor to the animal painting genre and to the role of women in society and art.

  31. ^Janson: History of Art, page
  32. ^Blume, Mary; Tribune, International Herald (4 October ). "The Rise and Fall of Rosa Bonheur". The New York Times. ISSN&#; Retrieved 14 March
  33. ^Encyclopedia of Lesbian and Gay Histories and Cultures: An Encyclopedia. Gay histories and cultures.

    Vol. 2. Taylor & Francis. ISBN&#;.

  34. ^ abBoime, Albert (December ). "The case of Rosa Bonheur: Why should a woman want to be more like a man?". Art History. 4 (4): – doi/jtbx.
  35. ^Van Slyke, Gretchen (January ).

    "Gynocentric matrimony: The fin-de-siécle alliance of Rosa Bonheur and Anna Klumpke". Nineteenth-Century Contexts. 20 (4): – doi/ PMID&#;

  36. ^Zimmerman, Bonnie (). Encyclopedia of Lesbian Histories and Cultures. Hoboken: Taylor & Francis. p. ISBN&#;
  37. ^"Was it really illegal for women in France to wear trousers until ?".
  38. ^Wills, Matthew (28 May ).

  39. Marie rosalie bonheur paintings
  40. Marie rosalie bonheur biography definition and pictures
  41. Marie rosalie bonheur the horse fair

    42. "Rosa Bonheur's Permission to Wear Pants". JSTOR Daily. Retrieved 23 November

  42. ^France, Connexion. "Women wearing trousers was illegal in France until ". . Retrieved 24 April
  43. ^Lampela, Laurel (). "Daring to Be Different: A Look at Three Lesbian Artists". Art Education. 54 (2): 45– doi/ JSTOR&#; S2CID&#;
  44. ^"The late Rosa Bonheur's relatives have been defeated in their contest over the great painter's will.

    It will be remembered that Miss Klumpke, the artist, was the legatee, and the courts have decided largely in her favor, all of the property, except the paintings, being awarded her, while the proceeds of the paintings, which are to be sold at auction, are to be equally divided between Miss Klumpke and the relatives." "Foreign Notes," Mark Hopkins Institute Review of Art, Sept.

    , vol. 1 no. 2, p.

  45. ^"The eight women artists of The National Gallery | Art UK". . Retrieved 4 March
  46. ^Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (). "Bonheur, Rosa"&#;. Encyclopædia Britannica (11th&#;ed.). Cambridge University Press.
  47. ^Galerie Georges Petit.

    1er. Tome, Catalogue des tableaux par Rosa Bonheur, May June 2, 2eme Tome, Aquarelles, dessins, gravures par Rosa Bonheur, June 5–8,

  48. ^Muratova, Xenia (). "Current and Forthcoming Exhibitions: Paris and China". The Burlington Magazine. (): – JSTOR&#;
  49. ^Rijsingen, Miriam van ().

    "How purple can it be?: Feminist art history". In Rosemarie Buikema, Anneke Smeli (ed.). Women's Studies and Culture: A Feminist Introduction. Palgrave Macmillan. pp.&#;94– ISBN&#;.

  50. ^Christie's. "Rosa Bonheur (French, )".

    Marie rosalie bonheur biography definition The younger sister of Rosa Bonheur by eight years, Juliette Bonheur "painted sentimental studies of pet animals," writes Germaine Greer , "with a degree of commercial and some academic success. The solid, straight edge of the plowed field recedes from foreground to middle ground. Bonheur's father subscribed to the Saint-Simonian philosophy, which adhered to Utopian socialist values and supported a vision of universal harmony that included total sexual equality. Bonhomme, Pierre.

    .

  51. ^"Google". . Retrieved 16 March
  52. ^"Remembering French painter Rosa Bonheur". . Retrieved 16 March
  53. ^Eugène de Mirecourt, Les Contemporains: Rosa Bonheur (Paris: Gustave Havard, 15 Rue Guénégaud, )
  54. ^Anna Klumpke, Rosa Bonheur: Sa Vie, Son Oeuvre, (Paris: E.

    Flammarion, ), Anna Klumpke, Rosa Bonheur: The Artist's (Auto)Biography, trans. Gretchen Van Slyke (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, ).

  55. ^Theodore Stanton, Reminiscences of Rosa Bonheur, (New York: D. Appleton and company, ), Theodore Stanton, Reminiscences of Rosa Bonheur, (London: Andrew Melrose, ).

Resources

Further reading

  • Dore Ashton, Rosa Bonheur: A Life and a Legend.

    Illustrations and Captions by Denise Browne Harethe.

  • What is rosa bonheur known for
  • Rosa bonheur paris
  • Clear
  • Rosa Bonheur | French Animal Painter & Sculptor | Britannica
  • Item 2 of 5

    • New York: A Studio Book/The Viking Press, NYT Review

  • Catherine Hewitt, Art is a Tyrant: The Unconventional Life of Rosa Bonheur. UK Published by Icon Books Ltd in
  • Isabella Zuralski-Yeager, "Tedesco Frères Selling Rosa Bonheur: An Inquiry into Dealers’ Stock Books." The Getty Research Journal, vol. 16, ,

External links

  • Joseph J.

    Rishel, “Barbaro after the Hunt by Marie-Rosalie Bonheur (W)[permanent dead link&#;],” in The John G. Johnson Collection: A History and Selected Works[permanent dead link&#;], a Philadelphia Museum of Art free digital publication.

  • How France is leveraging a lottery to finance historic preservation, PBS Newshour report with interior scenes of Bonheur's atelier
  • 20 artworks by or after Rosa Bonheur at the Art UK site
  • Rosa Bonheur - Artcyclopedia search
  • Rosa Bonheur - Rehs Galleries' biographical information and an image of her painting Couching Lion,
  • Rosa Bonheur Plowing in the Nivernais ().

    A video discussion about the painting from

  • A life without Compromise — Rosa Bonheur biography, artworks and writings on Trivium Art History
  • Art and the empire city: New York, , an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Bonheur (see index)
  • "Bonheur, Rosa," Library of Congress
  • Rosa Bonheur in American public collections, on the French Sculpture Census website
  • Portraits of Rosa Bonheur at the National Portrait Gallery, London