Rosa Bonheur
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Rosa Bonheur was a French artist known best as a painter of animals, widely considered to be the most famous female painter of the 19th century. She also made sculptures in a realist style.
Following the traditional art school curriculum of the period, Bonheur began her training by copying images from drawing books and by sketching plaster models. As her training progressed, she made studies of domesticated animals, including horses, sheep, cows, goats, rabbits, and other animals in the pastures around the perimeter of Paris, the open fields of Villiers near Levallois-Perret, and the still-wild Bois de Boulogne. At 14, she began to copy paintings at the Louvre. She studied animal anatomy and osteology in the abattoirs of Paris and dissected animals at the National Veterinary Institute in Paris. Her career started in 1849 when a French government commission led to Bonheur's first great success, Ploughing in the Nivernais, which you can find in our Archive. Though she was more popular in England than in her native France, she was decorated with the French Legion of Honour by the Empress Eugénie in 1865 and was promoted to Officer of the order in 1894. She was the first female artist to be given this award.
This painting, made from life, depicts a dog that belonged to a gentleman known as the Vicomte d'Armaille. It is one of Bonheur's numerous portraits of hunting dogs and pets.
P.S. Rosa Bonheur must have been an animal lover, just look at her beautiful depictions of horses and sheep! If you are a fan of Rosa Bonheur, her work was featured in our 50 Women Artists Postcard Set! :)