Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1883-09-29
GaIes arro Sketfhes.


Il is said that when Sir Edwin Landseer
first saw Rosa Bonheur's "Horse Fair, !"
he exclaimed: 1T surpasses me. though
it's little hard to be beaten by wo-
man." The exclamation was a magnani-
nous. though humorous compliment to
one of the few painters of the day who
deserve the title of master" Her con-
temporar,es pronounce her not only an
original genius, but the greatest OF fe-
male artists.
Nature has inspired her genius. While
painting her great picture of the "Horse
Fair" she went twice q week to the horse
market There she studied the horses
and their Normandy owners and grooms.
| She loves to study the individual traits Of
animals At her home she keeps, as ia
vorite models, two horses, four goats, an
Ok. a COW. donkevs. sheep, dogs, several
smaller animals, and q number of rare
fowls and birds. go
The daughter of painter, whose pow
erty compelled him to give lessons in
drawing. Rosa Bonheur early showed her
hereditary genius. When but ten years
old. she delighted to wander through the
Bots de Bouloene. then rough young
forest. Throwing herself on the grass,
she would pass hours in listening TO the
songs of the birds, or watching the effects
OF the sunlight struggling through the
| wood.
Broad, dusty roads run through the
forest Little Rosa often stopped on the
roadside and drew on the sand-with a
stick-horses, cowa, people. and then
surrounded them with landscape, dotted
with windmills and cottages. The draw
ing OF the little artist frequently attracted
a group Of persons.
You draw very well, my little girl"
said one of her admirers, as on his knees.
he examined the tracings in the sand"
Yes. indeed replied the child, with
decided air. Papa draws well, too.
He gave me lessons. vt
At the young ladies' school, where her
father paid for her tuition and board by
giving drawing-lessons. she made poor
progress in the ordinary studies. Draw
ing absorb her, and her sketches never
failed to win the first prize.
She also used her art to express her
love of fun. She would cut ont caricatures
of the older scholars and the teachers,
These she would fasten by threads to balls
of chewed paper, and then fling them to
the ceiling, where they dangled. to the
amusement of the school. Madame. the
principal, would sentence Rosa to bread
and water. and then gather up the carica-l
lures for her own album.
After several years of drawing and paint
ing IN her fathers studio. and at the Lou
vre Gallery, she resolved to be painter
of pastoral nature. The memories of her
pleasant days in the Bots de BoulOgne de-
termined her choice. Having outlived
her career, she used the necessary means
to fill it in. She took long walks into the
country and studied the streams, fields and
woods, and herds which made them their
haunts.
She and her father lived in small rooms
on the sixth story of Paris house. The
rooms opened out upon little balcony,
which Rosa made into a hanging garden,
where she installed pretty sheep. For
two years that sheep served as her model
Three times week the energetic young
woman visited one of the Paris abattoirs,
or slaughter houses. Their. amid butchers
and disgusting surroundings she sketched
She often called at farmyards and markets,
mingled with shepherds and horse-dealers
and roamed among the mountain pastures
of France and over the Pyrenees of Spain.
The moral OF her career is this. Put
energy of will into whatever you under
take. That, as Goethe says. makes the
difference between the great and the small
mind.