Rosa Bonheur: Why Google honours her today

French painter and sculptor Rosa Bonheur, who was born in 1822 and died in 1899, is famous for her distinctive work featuring animals.

On Wednesday, the 200th anniversary of her birthday, Google changed its logo in five countries to honour Bonheur.

This is her story:

Daughter of two artists

Born in Bordeaux, France, on March 16, 1822, Bonheur was the eldest of four siblings. Her father, Raymond Bonheur, was a drawing teacher and her mother, Sophie Marquis, a musician.

Bonheur’s love for the arts was developed at a young age.

“I was not yet four years old when I conceived a veritable passion for drawing, and I bespattered the white walls as high as I could reach with my shapeless daubs,” the artist was quoted as saying.

She also developed a love for animals and always credited her mother for it.

Early studies and Paris

In 1829, Bonheur’s family decided to move to France’s capital, where she continued her studies with her father.

During their time in Paris, her father developed a preference for the Saint-Simonian philosophy, which promoted gender equality among other values.

Those beliefs were transmitted to his daughter, who was placed in the same school as her brothers.

While growing up with young boys, she acquired skills that she retained throughout her life. “I was the ringleader in all the games and I did not hesitate, when necessary, to use my fists,” she said.

Bonheur was 10 years old when her mother died of cholera, and in the years that followed the family faced financial problems.

During this time, Bonheur’s father witnessed her painting skills, and one day after seeing one of her early paintings – a canvas representing a bunch of cherries – he encouraged her to pursue that path.

Bonheur continued practising and at the age of 14, she started copying paintings at the Louvre Museum.

She then developed a tendency for portraying animals, alongside improving her skills in sculpture. She also convinced her father to allow a sheep to be in the apartment, and later a goat, a dog, birds and other animals.

Love for animals and exhibitions

In 1840, Bonheur exhibited her work for the first time at the Paris Salon. Her work Two Rabbits Nibbling on Carrots and Goats and Sheep did not attract much attention, but that changed in the following years.

By 1843, she had enough money to be travelling around France and to continue focusing on sheep, cows and bulls.

Her reputation as an animal painter and sculptor continued growing during that period, and in 1849 following her father’s death, she went ahead and established her own studio, with her old friend and companion, Nathalie Micas.

Rosa Bonheur is one of the most important female artists of all time and she reached international levels of fame with her painting, 'The Horse Fair'.

She was born #OnThisDay in 1822. Celebrate her birthday with us and Fiona! 🎉 pic.twitter.com/KZN21ordOj

— National Gallery (@NationalGallery) March 16, 2022

The horse fair

The highlight of Bonheur’s career came in 1851 with the painting Le Marche aux Chevaux (The Horse Fair), which was submitted to the 1853 Paris Salon.

In the book Rosa Bonheur: With a Checklist of Works in American Collections, author Rosalia Shriver wrote: “[Bonheur] was only 31 years old. Yet no other woman had ever achieved a work of such force and brilliance, and no other animal painter had produced a work of such size.”

Her work rapidly gained more popularity and in 1855, Queen Victoria invited her to visit England.

French Empress Eugenie awarded Bonheur the Legion of Honour in 1865, when she was 43 years old. She was the first woman to receive this accolade.

In 1870, Bonheur began to study and sketch lions and other animals, while later she devoted herself to pastel work with great success.

In 1898, Bonheur started to live with a young American female artist named Anna Klumpe, who agreed to paint several portraits of Bonheur as well as write her biography.

A year later, Bonheur died of pulmonary influenza at the age of 77. Klumpe finished three of her portraits before she passed away.