Rosa Bonheur: The Artist's (Auto)biography

by Anna Klumpke, Gretchen Van Slyke (Translator)

Hailed by her contemporaries as the most popular animal-painter, male or female, of the nineteenth century, the French artist Rosa Bonheur (1822-99) lived to see her name become a household word. In a century that did its best to keep women "in their place," Bonheur, like George Sand--to whom she was often compared--defined herself outside of the social and legal codes of her time. To the horror and bewilderment of many, she earned her own money, managed her own property, wore trousers, hunted, smoked, and lived in retreat with female companions in a little chateau near Fountainebleau named The Domain of Perfect Affection.
Rosa The Artist's (Auto)Biography brings this extraordinary woman to life in a unique blend of biography and autobiography. Coupling her own memories with Bonheur's first-person account, Anna Klumpke, a young American artist who was Bonheur's lover and chosen portraitist, recounts how she came to meet and fall in love with Bonheur. Bonheur's account of her own life story, set nicely within Klumpke's narrative, sheds light on such topics as gender formation, institutional changes in the art world, governmental intervention in the arts, the social and legal regulation of dress codes, and the perceived transgressive nature of female sexual companionship in a repressive society, all with the distinctive flavor of Bonheur's artistic personality.
Gretchen van Slyke's translation provides a rare glimpse into the unconventional life of this famous French painter, and renders accessible for the first time in English this public statement of Bonheur's artistic credo. More importantly, whether judged by her century's standards (or perhaps even our own), it details a story of lesbian love that is bold, unconventional, and courageous.
"The remarkable life of Rosa Bonheur, one of the most highly decorated artists and certainly the best known female artist of her time in nineteenth-century France, is long overdue for further scrutiny." --Therese Dolan, Temple University
Gretchen van Slyke is Associate Professor of French, University of Vermont.

Genres: Art, Biography, History, Nonfiction

352 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1998

Reviews

[Nat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dude do you ever have that moment where you’ve just been reading the will and testament of some random French lesbian who painted sheep in the 19th century and been tearing up because she’s just such a fucking legend? Cuz oh yeah baby I’m in the fan club big time

[Carly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I never know how to rate non-fiction. This was interesting, but it wasn't a page turner. I had to force myself to keep reading it. But it was interesting whenever I picked it up.

The first section (not the intro, the first original section) came across as so creepy from a modern perspective. Rosa was like this old lady preying on a super-young Anna. And then there were a bunch of photos at the end of the first section and I realized Anna was middle aged (well, in her 30s, but the photo doesn't make her a young 30s) and it changed everything I thought about it. Because Anna is an adult. But that does not come across at all. The book is in Anna's own words, and I still would have guessed that she were maybe 19 or so from the way she portrays herself; jhe way her parents controlled her life and little things where she seemed naive or innocent. But I think it was just at that time, all unmarried women were treated like children. There was no language or framework for a women being an adult without being married off.

And that just intensified as the book continued. Because Rosa was basically married twice, first to Nathalie, her childhood sweetheart, and then late in life after Nathalie passes away, to Anna. But their relationships are constantly described in mother-and-child terms. There's no girlfriend or wife or partner or anything like that. I have no idea how that came across to people reading the book in the original French when it was published in 1908, but to me now, it's very weird to think of your lover as your mother.

Beyond that, the highlights were:

“Nothing can match my horror for the great slaughters in which our history takes such pride. God willing, the twentieth century, of which I’ll see just the dawn, won’t quarrel with the nineteenth century for the privilege of reinventing gunpowder.”

Because I always think it's interesting/sad/indicative of human nature that at the turn of the calendar people always think the future will be different and better and people won't repeat the mistakes of the past (although they always do).

And the passage that inspired me to pick up the book in an Instagram art history lecture, something Rosa tells Anna toward the end of her life: "I arranged with Nathalie to be buried at Pere-Lachaise cemetery, in the Micas family vault. After me, there'll be room for one more in the tomb. Will you take that place, my dear Anna? Then you'll be close to me even in the grave. Nathalie won't be jealous, I know. Her love for me is big enough to understand that when souls share everything, each one's happiness only increases the other's."

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rosa absolute queen

[Noélie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Une fin 😭