Rosa Bonheur, Art from the Start

"The Horse Fair" by Rosa Bonheur

"From her earliest infancy Rosa Bonheur showed signs of the talent that has placed her very high as a painter of animals. Before she could walk she would amuse herself for hours with a pencil and a piece of paper and writing of her childhood she herself said, 'I refused formally to learn to read, but before I was four years old I already had a passion for drawing, and I covered the white walls as high as I could reach with my shapeless sketches. What amused me also was to cut out subjects; they were always the same. To begin with I made long ribbons, then with my scissors I used to cut out, first a shepherd, then a dog, then a calf, then a sheep, and then a tree, invariably the same order. I spent many days over this pastime.'

She was born on March 16th, 1822, at Bordeaux, her father being a drawing-master, named Raymond Bonheur, and a pupil of Lacour. Her mother was a teacher of music, and both parents seemed to have inspired great affection their children, and to have transmitted artistic talent to each of their offspring, for although Rosa possessed it in the most marked degree, her two brothers Auguste and Isidore, and her sister Madame Peyrol, were all artists of merit.

In 1828 Rosa's father went to Paris in order to find a more remunerative position, remaining a year before his family joined him, and in the letters that passed between him and his wife there are constant references to Rosa's early bent. 'I cannot understand,' writes Madame Bonheur, 'why this child who has intelligence should have so much difficulty in learning. I believe that it is obstinacy; but she is very good. She has drawn a landscape which I send you.' And again, 'I cannot tell what Rosa will be, but of this I feel sure, she will be no ordinary woman.' Unfortunately the mother did not live to see the fulfillment of her prophecy, for she died in 1833, four years after the family had settled in Paris."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Rosa Bonheur" by Frank Hird.)