Famous People

Southland Times, Issue 20939, 23 November 1929, Page 23

Famous People

ONE MINUTE BIOGRAPHIES. WHO: HOSA BONHEUR (80-ii uhr’) Where: France. When: Nineteenth century. Why famous: A woman artist of France, distinguished for her .clever paintings of animals. She was of a Jewish family, her father himself an artist who gave his daughter first lessons. When she was 18 years old two of her pictures were shown at the Salon in Paris, and not long after her canvas, “Labourages Nivernais,” was bought by the French Government for the Luxembourg Gallery. From that time her progress was rapid. Her celebrated “Horse Fair” was taken to London to be shown at a French exhibition. This painting, perhaps the best known of any by Rosa Bonheur has experienced its vicissitudes. First, the artist offered it for a certain sum to her native city of Bordeaux, and when that offer was declined, sold it in England; it was later purchased by the American, Cornelius Vanderbilt, for the Metropolitan Museum in New York City. There it may still be seen; likewise a smaller replica at the National Gallery in London. For a number of years Rosa Bonheur

was at the head of the Free School of Design for Young Girls of Paris. There is a favourite story that, during the German siege of Paris a special order was issued by the Crown Prince of Prussia that the artist’s home and studio at Fontainebleau should on no account be molested. Her skill was widely and generously recognized; for she received two first-class medals from the French Salon, also the decoration of the Legion of Honour in 1865. Her painting, “Horses Threshing Corn,” which in 1892 brought £60,000, is the largest animal painting known, the canvas showing ten horses painted life-size. Critics generally have acclaimed Rosa Bonheur’s presentation of animals as remarkably strong and convincing. The artist herself, it is said, often dressed in mannish costume, frequented public markets and fairs. So devotedly and painstakingly did she study her subjects that they were frequently stabled in a building adjacent to her studio.