Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899) Musée d'Orsay

 

FYI it’s useful to know the musee d’Orsay is always open late on Thursday nights till 9:45

So many exhibits close in January. It’s a month of catching up. I finally went last Thursday to see the Rosa Bonheur exhibit before it closed last Sunday. It was mobbed.

No idea why I waited so long…

Since I am mad for Rosa Bonheur’s animal drawings.

Keeping up with everything going on in Paris is hard. I got there at 6pm. Already there were throngs of people waiting. When I left it was insane. *Note - do not wait until an exhibit is closing to see it in Paris.

The huge retrospective (200 pieces) was the 200th anniversary of Rosa Bonheur’s birth in 1822. 

Bonheur was born into a family of artists. Her father was a drawing instructor and sent her off to the Louvre to make copies of Dutch animal paintings. Her mother died when she was only 11. As the eldest of four children, she more or less took charge of her family.

Talent-wise she outshone them all. She could draw before she could write. She was encouraged by her mother, a piano teacher, to learn the alphabet by sketching an animal for each letter. At age 17 in 1841 she got 2 paintings into the annual artist’s salon. 

In 1849 she won the gold medal in the salon with Ploughing in the Nivernais, a first for a woman artist. It was commissioned by the French government who paid her 3,000 francs to complete the agricultural painting and later shown at the 1889 Worlds Fair in Paris, which enhanced her reputation world-wide.

Uniquely her focus was animals in nature, unlike the more traditional trend for historical or mythological paintings of her time. 

Her majestic animal paintings were on a grand scale.

Sometimes 16’ across

Her large paintings attracted heads of industry, royalty, heads of state with palaces and grand houses to fill. 

She was a pioneer both as an artist and as an independent woman. Her hair was short, she smoked cigars and decided early never to marry. 

“I wed art. It is my husband, my world, my life dream, the air I breathe. I know nothing else, feel nothing else, think nothing else”

She had special permission, required at the time, to dress in men’s clothing, so she could visit horse fairs, slaughterhouses to study animal anatomy and ride horses astride. 

Her painting, The Horse Fair drew the attention of British and American collectors. Cornelius Vanderbilt bought it and donated it to the New York Metropolitan Museum. People praised her, by saying,’She painted like a man’.

Queen Victoria, who loved animals, invited her to Scotland to paint sheep

At 37 she bought Chateau de By near Fontainebleau as her painting atelier, to show her works and keep her menagerie of animals. Circuses and zoos donated lions to her. There were no restrictions at the time.

First thing, she went out walking in the morning, sketching among the animals, building a rapport with them, always looking to capture their essence. There is nothing sentimental about her animal art. But as time past, the Impressionnistes and other modern artists eclipsed her fame and celebrity. Cezanne had nothing good to say about her

Bonheur lived at Chateau de By first with one companion artist, Nathalie Micas, for 40 years. And later with American portrait painter, Anna Klumpke, who became her biographer and heir. The rundown chateau was sold to Katherine Brault, who has meticulously restored it to its former glory. You can read more in Elaine Sciolino’s story for the Smithsonian.If you missed the exhibition, Bonheur’s chateau is now a museum you can visit, by reservation. You can take tea there or even stay overnight in one of the bedrooms. I almost went last summer…but I will try again soon.