Page 70 - B-ALL 43 ENG

A rich retrospective dedicated to the painter Rosa Bonheur (1822 -1899) is organized by the Musée d’Orsay to commemorate the bicentenary of her birth in Bordeaux.
An exceptional woman, endowed with a fascinating personality, this star of 19th century painting clashed with her male colleagues in the field of enormous can- vases of animal subjects. Yet her mastery gave her works a higher market value than others of her time.Nearly 200 paintings, sculptures and drawings are gathered here, alongside works often reproduced on wallpaper, matchboxes and tea services in a veritable “rosamania”.
Icon of female emancipation, first woman to receive the Legion of Honor, thanks to the will of Empress Eugénie, Rosa Bonheur was extravagant.
She wore a masculine hairstyle, smoked cigars and lived in a marital relationship with a woman. Thanks to a cross-dressing permit obtained by the Prefecture which was granted to her because of her need to study animals more closely in the wild, she wore pants.
Her father Raimond Bonheur was a painter and her mother was one of his students and the family of artists lived in the countryside during Rosa’s childhood. She takes her first steps, surrounded by cows and horses.
In 1829, the family moved to Paris and encountered many difficulties there.
Only eleven years old, Rosa loses her mother to exhaustion and sees her buried in a common grave in the cemetery of Montmartre.
Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899)
The King of the Forest 1817
Oil on canvas 244.4 x 175 cm
Private collection
Photo © Christie’s Images / Bridgeman Images