Rosa Bonheur

1 works

Rosa Bonheur (1822–1899) was born in Bordeaux, trained with her artist father in Paris, and later lived and worked at the Château de By near the forest of Fontainebleau.

She was the most famous animal painter of her time, celebrated above all for the huge, thundering canvas The Horse Fair.

To sketch freely at horse markets she obtained an official permit to wear trousers, and at her country home she kept a whole menagerie of animals, even lions.

The Horse Fair
Rosa Bonheur, 1852–55