Rosa Bonheur, an artist going against the grain
If Rosalie Bonheur, known as Rosa Bonheur, is often presented as a symbol of non-conformism, it should be remembered, according to Katherine Brault, director of the Château de By, that her life choices were only the reflection of her very progressive education, and not the fruit of a certain militancy.
Born at Bordeaux on March 16, 1822, the young Rosa enjoyed a golden childhood, until her father, Raymond Bonheur, painter and drawing teacher, abandoned his wife and children to study gender equality within a Saint-Simonian convent. Although from a bourgeois background, Sophie Bonheur finds herself forced to work to raise her four children, putting aside her talents as a musician. Seeing her mother exhausted by the task, Rosa promises herself to succeed professionally and become independent. On the death of her mother, she put aside the profession of seamstress to which she was predestined, and then began to work in her father’s studio as a painter, developing at the same time her interest in the animal art. An emancipated woman, who imposes herself in art, and what is more by painting animals in formats of history paintingfor the time, it is not common.
“Rosa Bonheur will prove that the woman is indeed the equal of the man and that the genius has no sex. However, her goal is not to claim it. Because she was born and raised in an environment where women have always been seen as the future of society. For her, it’s a reality. So she’s just going to demonstrate it,” says Katherine Brault.
Other anecdotes subsequently came to reinforce this “unconventional” aspect. Like the fact that she has short hair, wears pants, and doesn’t marry any man. But there again, Katherine Brault puts aside any desire to claim.
“When she was young, Rosa Bonheur had big curls. To relieve her mother, she decided to cut them off. And will do it again when she died, symbolically. criticize his students, after taking over his father’s workshop, when they cut their hair to claim to be ‘equal to man'”, assures the director of the Château de By.
The same goes for the wearing of trousers, forbidden to women at that time. “She didn’t do it out of provocation, but because wearing pants allowed her to protect herself when she walked the cattle fairs. Besides, she never received people in pants”, continues the specialist. As for marriage, Rosa often heard her father say that if he hadn’t married, he would have had a career. Then saw his mother sacrificing herself for her family to the detriment of her passion. Which, we guess, did not turn out to be a very good seller.
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Rosa Bonheur, an LGBT+ icon?
These anecdotes and her natural feminism, combined with the fact that Rosa Bonheur shared certain moments of her life with women – Nathalie Micas, her childhood friend, and Anna Klumpke, with whom she corresponded for several years, and who became her heiress. and universal legatee – thus contributed to shaping the legend around his supposed homosexuality. But for Katherine Brault, this parallel is not quite fair.
“Rosa Bonheur said: ‘all religions have their vestal virgin, so why shouldn’t art have one?’. She then said she was a vestal virgin of art”. She did not deny appreciating the idea of being pampered by a man, but had given herself a mission: that of raising women in art, and society in general”, explains the specialist.
“Anna Klumpke’s arrival at the Château de By, where she lived for 9 months, followed a request from Rosa. The first wanted to do portraits, the other that we write her biography, so that the we give back his letters of nobility to his mother and that we talk a little less about his father“, she continues. Alas, Rosa dies before the end of the writing of said biography.
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Painting as a plea against animal abuse
If the work of Rosa Bonheur was initially emulated, then found itself largely underestimated, it is clear that the causes that were close to her heart are very topical today: to prove that woman is the equal of man, denounce animal abuse, and preserve nature. But at the time, his paintings and the messages they convey are, alas, misunderstood.
“Rosa wishes to show that animals are beings in their own right, that they are the equal of humans, and that they have a soul. In her paintings, their looks are of considerable importance. They are the key to his work”, assures Katherine Brault.
The Horse Market – Rosa Bonheur’s flagship work – is the perfect example of this since it stands out as a real plea against animal abuse. “The mistake was to consider Rosa as an artist who liked to paint rurality and the peasant world. Whereas it was the animal in the peasant world that interested her”she continues.
To this is added his positions in favor of the Amerindians and their way of life. “Rosa was shocked that we were making these civilizations disappear, and in particular their relationship to nature and animals, adds Katherine Brault. Her opinion was dissonant compared to what we were used to hearing at the era”.
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An artist ousted from the history of art
And it is thanks in particular to the Horse Market that Rosa Bonheur has met with great success. Presented in 1853, the work received a torrent of praise, which gave the artist great notoriety. Rosa officially becomes financially independent and does not take long to afford the Château de By, at the top of Thomery. She meets Ernest Gambart, who becomes her dealer, making his paintings travel throughout Europe, but also in the United States. “From her great success in the United States, she will no longer be successful in France. She will be highly criticized. So much so that all the praise of the past will be swept away by negative reviews”laments Katherine Brault.
“Art historians who were mostly men overlooked this part of the art, considering her art as a minor art. And this, even though Rosa painted as no one had painted before. After the war, we will consider that women have no place in the workplace, and those who have succeeded will be erased from history. This is how two generations of Art History have been built without the story of Rosa Happiness,” she continues.
Today the Castle of By allows the public to learn more about the life and work of this extraordinary artist. In particular with the exhibition* of photos of his works on glass plates, photographed by Anna K. on the death of Rosa Bonheur. Many of these works have never been found.
*exhibition open to the public until August 28, 2022
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