A Description of a Horse Fair.
A Visit to Rosa Bonheur’s Horse Fair.
A Day with the Artist.
=The story of the artist.= Perhaps the reason Rosa Bonheur loved animals
so dearly was because she spent the first ten years of her life in a
little village, where her parents and their neighbors kept horses,
chickens, and pigs, and where Rosa learned to know all about them. Rosa
and her two brothers had lambs, rabbits, squirrels, and pigeons for
pets. They spent many happy hours out in the fields and woods, yet when
their father, who was an artist, decided to move to the great city of
Paris the children were delighted. This wonderful Paris they had heard
so much about seemed to them the most desirable place in the world to
be, and their only sorrow was in parting from their grandparents and
from their many pets. Rosa was allowed to take a parrot with her, and
the two boys had a dog.
The first place in which they lived was up several flights of stairs and
across the street from a butcher’s shop. This shop had a queer sign cut
from wood and representing a wild boar, which looked so much like Rosa’s
little pig at home that she used to stop to pet it every time she
passed.
A man who lived in the same house with the Bonheurs kept a small school
for boys. Rosa’s two brothers went to this school, and later the teacher
said Rosa might come, too. She was the only girl in the school, but she
did not mind that at all, and the boys were glad to have her, for she
knew more games than they, and played just like one of them.
The father had hoped to sell more of his pictures in the city, but he
did not do as well as he had expected and it cost so much more to live
that he had to move his family to a cheaper house and up on the sixth
floor.
Rosa’s mother was a musician and gave music lessons to help keep up the
home, but she worked too hard and finally became very ill. She died just
as the father secured a position in a private school and things began to
look more prosperous for the Bonheur family.
For a time the father tried to keep his little family together by
leaving them in a sort of day nursery, but this was not satisfactory, so
he had to send them away. Juliette, the baby sister born after they
moved to Paris, was sent to her grandmother, the two boys to school, and
Rosa to an aunt.
This aunt sent Rosa to school. To reach the schoolhouse she had to walk
some distance through the woods, and often she would stop on the way,
smooth the dust in the road with her hand, and then draw pictures in it
with a stick, her favorite pictures being of animals. Often she became
so absorbed in her drawing she forgot to go to school, or was so late
that her teachers complained to the aunt, saying she was getting behind
in her school work. Every time her father came to see her Rosa begged
him to take her home, and when at last he could provide for his children
they were all very happy to be together again in Paris.
Wherever they lived they must have pets. A great many stories have been
told about the pets they kept in their house. Every morning Rosa’s
brother Isidore would carry a little lamb on his shoulders down six
flights of stairs, that it might nibble the green grass and be out in
the fresh air, and in the evening he would carry it back upstairs. It
became a great pet, and all the children drew its picture in ever so
many different positions. Besides, they had the parrot, a monkey, two
dogs, rabbits, and birds. Their father let them keep these in a room
especially fitted up for the purpose.
He was teaching in a private school at this time and was away from home
all day, but when evening came he gathered his children about him and
taught them how to draw. They put their easels in different parts of the
room and worked away, drawing and painting, until bedtime. They would
all much rather do this than anything else in the world.
Then the father accepted another position in a school where he could
also send his four children. Here Rosa was continually in trouble, for
she did not study much and was always getting into mischief. One day she
planned a mock battle in the school yard between the girls. They used
sticks for swords. Very soon Rosa’s side drove their enemies toward a
bed of hollyhocks which was the pride of the school. Here they turned
and fled, but Rosa charged on. She cut off the heads of all those
stately hollyhocks because they seemed to stand guard like soldiers. For
this she was sent home in disgrace.
Very often, too, Rosa had these sham fights with her brothers at home,
when the easels and even the pictures were used. The palettes served as
shields, and the little Juliette, dressed in all the finery they could
find, sat in state, representing the lady of their choice for whom the
battle was fought.
Rosa tried to learn the dressmaking trade and to be a teacher, but it
was no use,—the only thing she cared to do was to draw. So her father
decided to give up trying to educate her in any other way. She was
willing to walk miles in any kind of weather, to sit hours in all sorts
of uncomfortable positions, and to go without food, in order to draw a
good picture of some animal.
Now that she had begun in earnest to study animals, she must go to all
the country horse fairs, to the slaughter houses, and everywhere she
could to study them. But as she grew older she found it more and more
difficult to go to these places, because of the attention she attracted
and because her long skirts were so in the way. Finally she obtained a
permit to wear men’s clothes. With her short hair, blue working blouse,
and dark trousers she looked so much like one of the workmen that now no
one noticed her, and she could go where she pleased.
People who did know her did not mind her dress and were ready to help
her all they could in her work. From all over the country she received
gifts of fine horses and other animals to paint, Buffalo Bill once
sending her two fine horses from Texas. She bought a farm, and had a
large barn built for her many pets.
Her pictures became famous the world over. How proud her father was of
her!
One day she was working very hard in her studio when a servant came to
tell her that the Empress Eugénie had come to see her. It was a great
event when this royal lady came to the artist’s studio, and there was
Rosa dressed in her old blue blouse, all spotted with paint. She did not
have time even to slip it off before the empress came in, but they had a
most delightful visit. As the Empress Eugénie bent over and kissed Rosa
Bonheur she pinned the Cross of the Legion of Honor on the artist’s blue
blouse. Rosa did not notice it until after the Empress had left. She
must have been very much pleased, for she was the first woman to receive
that honor.
=Questions to help the pupil understand the picture.= Tell about Rosa
Bonheur as a little girl. Where did she live the first ten years of her
life? What pets did she have? Why were the children glad to go to Paris?
why sorry? What pets did they take with them? Describe their first home
in Paris. Tell about the wild boar; the school for boys. Why did the
Bonheurs move? What did Rosa’s mother do to help? When she died, what
became of the children? To whom were they sent? Why was Rosa behind in
her studies at school? Why did she return to Paris? Tell about the
children’s pets, and how they were kept; about Isidore and the lamb.
What did the children do in the evening? Where did Rosa go to school?
Tell about the mock battle and the hollyhocks. How was Rosa punished?
Tell about the sham battles at home. What was Rosa willing to do in
order to draw? Where did she go to study animals? Why did she wear men’s
clothes? What were some of the presents she received? Tell about the
visit of the Empress Eugénie. What honor did Rosa Bonheur receive from
her, and how was it presented?
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