Rosa Bonheur, Pastelist

"Call of the Stag" by Rosa Bonheur

"Rosa Bonheur's passion for her art suffered no diminution by the passing of years, and at the age of seventy-five, when most of those who work with their hands and their brains begin to think of rest after their lifelong labours, she experimented in another vehicle. She had done many sketches in charcoal, but she had not tried chalk to any great extent. 

In 1897, however, she exhibited four pastels at the Georges Petit Gallery in Paris, which in their way were tours de force. Their size was unusually large for pastels, and they represented sheep, stags, and bisons, with a vigour not generally associated with this method.

One stag was shown standing in the clear morning light, another by moonlight, the sheep were in a landscape gradually darkening under evening shadows, and the bisons in a desolate country covered with snow - landscapes and subjects so varied that it seemed as if the venerable painter had wished to demonstrate her mastery over all the branches of her art. 

The success of this excursion into pastel did not, however, seduce her from her brush, and in the same year she painted two large pictures, one of her favourite horse 'Bebe,' the other a wagon laden with hay, besides a panel of a stag, and a fan with three cows upon it in a charming landscape."

To be continued

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