| Artikkelin indeksi |
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| An artist defined by contradictions |
| Travesty Permit to study carcases |
| Better represented abroad |
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Rosa Bonheur - what an auspicious name for an artist! English interpretations of the French noun "bonheur" are manifold: "felicity", "happiness", "bliss", "joy", "good fortune”, depending on the context.
Her paintings hang in the most prestigious museums in the world - and yet Le Petit Larousse, the encyclopedic dictionary present in every home in France, doesn't even carry an entry about the 19th century French naturalist painter.
Elsewhere, especially in America, Scotland and England, Rosa Bonheur was quickly elevated to star status. Yet the French, who at the time were bedazzled by the latest artistic trend, Impressionism, found her animal sketches, sculptures and paintings too insipidly academic, too "mièvre".
She defied most social conventions in her personal life. She smoked Havanas, rode horses astride, wore her hair short and often exchanged dresses for trousers. And she lived openly with two women. Much later some feminists tried to turn her eccentricities into some kind of role model. Yet, during her own time, Rosa was never accused of scandalous provocation.
She supported her parents and three siblings financially throughout her life. Yet she disinherited them in the end and left her entire estate to her American female companion.
An atelier of memories
A solitary soul who wanted time and privacy to work, she abhorred the “mondanités” of Paris with its courtesans, journalists, parasites - and Imperial Court. As soon as her economic situation permitted, she fled the noisy capital - to "join the birds", as she called it.
At Chateau de By near Fontainebleau, where Rosa Bonheur lived for some 40 years, visitors still feel the presence of a hard-working artist with a fascinating personality best described through contradictions. The indomitable spirit of a painter and sculptress who practiced, but did not preach, gender equality before the time still lingers in her atelier.
The 6-meter high walls are covered with hunting trophies of big and small animals, wood sculptures of horse heads, personal mementoes, an array of harnesses, paintings and sketches. And on an easel in front of the huge fireplace is the big unfinished oil painting the artist was working on when she died.
Maybe the most surprising - shocking, yet moving - object in the spacious room is the embalmed head of her beloved mare Margot hanging in the place of honor above the entrance. When Rosa felt that her own death was near, she shot Margot herself.
