Rosa Bonheur Biography
Marie Rosalie Bonheur, born on 16 May 1822 in Saint-Seurin and died on 25 May 1899 in Thomery, was a famous painter of her time, known for her portraits of horses and wild beasts. She was the eldest daughter of the painter Raymond Bonheur and Sophie Marquis. Since the French Schools of Fine Arts of the time were closed to women, her father was her only teacher. Rosa loved animals and preferred fairs, stables and farms. At nineteen he exhibited at the Paris exhibition, where he also won his first Gold Medal. For inspiration, she wandered around the horse markets in Paris dressed as a man, even though wearing trousers for a woman in France had been a crime since the 1800s.
In 1865, she became the first woman awarded the Grand Cross of the Légion d'Honneur. In 1898, after the death of her longtime companion Nathalie Micas, Rosa gave in to the request of a San Francisco painter, Anna Elizabeth Klumpke, to have her portrait painted. Love was born between the seventy-year-old Rosa and the forty-three-year-old Anna but, unfortunately, Rosa died nine months after their meeting.
In her will, Rosa named Anna universal heir, causing the disapproval of the painter's family.
