Rosa Bonheur

Description

Francois Crastre is responsible for the Masterpieces in Color series, a set of biographical works centering on some of the most famous artists and personalities in history. Rosa Bonheur is among the most distinguished individuals portrayed through Crastre’s series, her illustrious career shining through the words of a skilled and passionate French author, who sought to offer her and other artists the distinction that maybe they had never received during their lifetime. This biographical work is considered one of the best written and most comprehensive writings dedicated solely to the great artist herself.

Rosa Bonheur was raised in a family of artists and led on her first steps towards artistic glory by her father, Raymond Bonheur. Raymond, a gifted artist and member of a little known socialist group that upheld the rights of women and sought to abolish the social classes, saw the immense artistic potential that his daughter and her two siblings had, and sought to nurture and train them as his successors.

Rosa owed much of her upbringing as a confident young woman and a determined artist to her father, who had brought her up to be proud of her gender in a world based on heavily biased patriarchal ideologies. She began her arts training under the guidance of Raymond at the age of 13, as she was not allowed to attend formal art schools at the time.

Even though her father’s artistic success waned in later years, his three children helped him by continuing the family workshop themselves, and Rosa eventually took his place at the helm upon her father’s death.

Her strong belief that all creatures had a soul drove Rosa to focus primarily on nature landscapes and painting animals. As she had the opportunity to paint the beautiful countryside landscapes and farm animals in Rue Rumford, where their family had moved in 1842, Rosa Bonheur soon gained national, then global recognition for her works.
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