“Art is an absorbent, - a tyrant. It demands heart, brain, soul, body, the entireness of its votary. Nothing less will win its highest favor. 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. My soul finds in it the most complete satisfaction. I married art …. What could I do with any other husband?”

Rosa Bonheur, born in 1822 in Bordeaux, France, was the daughter of Sophie and Raymond Bonheur. Her father taught drawing and her mother gave piano lessons. Her family made do with a rather small income, and she said they “used to migrate like the birds.” Rosa’s mother died when Rosa was eleven. Her father then sent her, along with her brothers, to a co-educational school. The school was taught by a Jansenist who believed in equal education during a time when it was unusual for girls to attend school at all. Her father was a Saint-Simonian who lived a pseudo-monastic life. They believed in the abolition of the law of inheritance, the enfranchisement of women, and the complete equality of women with men. These liberal views would later have a great influence on Rosa’s political and philosophical views.

Raymond, now a widower with four children, decided to send Rosa to train as a dressmaker although she displayed a certain gift for art. Rosa despised the boarding school and sought pleasure in drawing and painting in her father’s studio while he was away during the day. When Rosa was thirteen Raymond found her painting a bunch of cherries and, delighted with her natural talent, ended her formal education and sent her to art school. During her training she went to the Louvre to copy masterpieces. She was taunted by fellow students and visitors because she was a girl pursuing a man’s profession.

As a teenager Rosa meet her beloved Nathalie Micas. The Micases encouraged Rosa to rent her own studio and helped her find commissions. On his deathbed, Nathalie’s father arranged a union between his daughter and Rosa, telling Raymond Bonheur: “Let our two children stay together always. You see how much they love each other. Rosa needs Nathalie to love and protect her. Come, children, I want to give you my blessing!” He then put his hands on the girls’ heads, blessed them, and kissed them. Shortly after his death Nathalie, her mother, and Rosa all moved in together.

During this time Rosa began to visit a horse market to make preliminary sketches and studies for a painting which would later become her masterpiece. The atmosphere of the horse market was a dangerous one for women, so Rosa wore men’s attire which allowed her to gain access to the market while also facilitating her work. After eighteen months of preliminary study she began work on The Horse Fair.

Rosa submitted this monumental piece to the Salon of 1853. At this time women painters were confined to painting subjects within the domestic sphere – portraits and still lifes. Not only had Rosa painted a masculine subject, but she had created a massive piece that no other animalier had yet attempted. The Horse Fair is over eight feet tall by sixteen feet wide, and the horses are two-thirds life-size. The Salon at this time declared her ’hors de concours’ or exempt from having to submit future entries to the jury. After her success with this piece at the Salon, Rosa offered the painting to Bordeaux, her native city, for 12,000 francs. They declined saying that such a sum was too much for a painting by a woman. Soon after, her painting was bought for 40,000 francs by an art dealer. Nathalie had arranged the sale and Rosa was amazed to find that her painting had brought so much money.

In 1860 Rosa, Nathalie, and Mme Micas moved to By in the Forest of Fontainebleau. This move was partly at the request of the will left by Rosa’s father. He asked they promise to stay together, even requesting that the first to die should leave her estate to the survivor. Mme Micas managed the household while Rosa worked in the atelier she had built onto the chateau. Nathalie was well-educated and showed talent in painting, literature, and even mechanics. She also studied medicine and surgery and took care of the animals Rosa kept on their farm for her studies and paintings.

At By, Rosa wore pants and a smock and sported a short haircut. This mode of dress allowed her to work freely in her studio and on her farm. It was, during that era, scandalous for a woman to wear pants, but Rosa insisted on doing as she wished - which included smoking cigars and riding her horse astride.

In 1865 Rosa was presented with the Legion of Honor and became the first woman of France to receive this renowned award. She continued painting until 1889 when Nathalie died. Eventually, she forced herself to work again and soon began a relationship with the American artist Anna Elizabeth Klumpke. Rosa rewrote her will and left Anna the majority of her estate. She said that Anna had given up her own career in order to stay with Rosa out of sincere affection. In 1899 Rosa died after a few days of illness. She is buried with Nathalie, Mme Micas, and Anna in Paris with the inscription “L’Amitie est une affection divine” on her tomb.