Known throughout her life as an eccentric with a forceful personality the French artist Rosa Bonheur took a traditional route when it came to her chosen career. Born on March 16, 1822 in Bordeaux, France, Rosa's parents were to provide her with a strong non-conformist background whilst encouraging her artistic ability. Her mother, Sophie Bonheur, taught her the alphabet by drawing animals next to each letter imbuing a love of nature and art from an early age. Her father, Raimond Bonheur, a unsuccessful landscape painter who held extremely strong socialist beliefs, belonged to a number of unusual groups throughout his lifetime, even living in a monastery at one time. After failing to make a living as an artist Raimond was forced to take up teaching as a profession and moved to Paris in 1828. Despite this however the family still struggled and after giving birth to another daughter and two sons Sophie died in 1833 when Rosa was only 11 years old.
As females were discouraged from attending art school in the 19th century Rosa was indeed fortunate that her father took the time to tutor and encourage her interest in art. From age 10 she spent time sketching animals in the parks surrounding Paris and Raimond also allowed her to keep a variety of pets including a pet sheep, which she housed on the balcony of the family's 6th floor apartment. By age 17 she was earning money to help supplement the family income by making copies of paintings in the Louvre. In particular she was strongly influenced by the work of the English animal painter Edward Landseer. Rosa also studied anatomy by visiting slaughterhouses and performing dissections in order to study the animals' bone and muscle structure. She then used this information in her preparatory sketches and studies before beginning to work on her paintings.
Rosa cut a controversial figure in her time. Smoking cigarettes in public she also rode astride, had short hair and wore men's clothing (she once had to ask permission from the police in order to wear trousers and a smock so that she could work undisturbed while sketching at a horse fair). Not conventionally beautiful on one occasion she was arrested while wearing female attire by a gendarme who thought she was a man dressed as a woman! On leaving home Rosa lived with female companions: for 50 years she shared her life with Nathalie Micas whom she had met in her teens and who died in 1889 leaving her heartbroken. Afterwards she became attached to the American artist Anna E. Klumpke.
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