Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899), French painter and sculptor of animals, was one of the most significant and best-known women artists of her time. She was born Marie Rosalie Bonheur, in Bordeaux, on March 22, 1822, the daughter of Raymond Bonheur, an amateur painter turned professional. She was the eldest of four children, all of whom became artists—her brother Auguste and her sister Juliette were painters, and her brother Isidore Jules was a sculptor of animals. After receiving her first instruction from her father, she studied with Léon Cogniet at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.
At an early age Rosa Bonheur began to specialize in animal subjects. She studied them in the Bois de Boulogne, some parts of which were still wild. She began to exhibit at the Paris Salon in 1840 and won a first-class medal in 1848 for Ploughing in the Nivernais, now in the Louvre, Paris. Her work reached full maturity early in her career, and her fame was secured in 1853 when she exhibited The Horse Fair, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. This painting was much admired and became widely known through engraved copies. Late in her career, Bonheur adopted the brilliant color of the impressionists.
Rosa Bonheur was also well known as a sculptor, and she was one of the most successful of a contemporary group of French sculptors of animals. This group, whose work has attracted renewed interest, also included Antoine Louis Barye, Pierre Jules Mène, and Rosa's brother Isidore Jules.
From her youth Rosa Bonheur showed an independence of spirit and a desire to be accepted on the same footing as the male artists of her time. She was named a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 1865 and was the first woman to receive the Grand Cross of the Legion. Queen Victoria of England befriended her and was her patron, helping to make the artist a favorite of aristocratic England.
Rosa Bonheur spent her last years at By, near Fontainebleau, where she died on May 25, 1899. Her brother Isidore Jules sculptured the monument to her at Fontainebleau.