Wichita eagle., 1886-08-21
9ail9R eagle
ROSA BONHEUR'S YOUTH.
IN A SEWING ESTABLISHMENT TO
BECOME A SeAMSTREss.

An Unhappy Girl at School . Draw.
ing Caricatures of the Teachers-Copy.
ing the Works of the Old Masters-The
Artist at IL.
In simple home in Paris could have been
seen in 1929 Raymond Bonheur and his little
family-Rosa, years DID, Auguste, Isadore
and Juliette. He was man of fine talent in
painting, but obliged to spend his time in Civ
ing drawing lessons to support his children.
HIS wife, Sophia, gave lessons on the piano.
going from house to house all day long and
sometimes sewing half the night to earn a
little more for the necessities of life
hard work and poverty soon bore its usual
frult, and the tired young mother died in
1853. The three eldest children went to board
with plain woman, la Mere Catherine" in
the Champs ElyseeS, and the Youngest was
placed with relatives For two wears the
good woman cared for the children. sending
them to school, though she was greatly
troubled because Rosa persisted in PLAYING in
the woods of the Bots de Boulogne. gathering
her arms full of daisies and marigolds. rather
than to be shut up in a schoolroom. Il never
spent an hour OF fine weather indoors during
the whole of the two years. she has often
said since those days.
Finally the father married again and
brought the children home The two BOYS
were placed in school and Mr. Bonheur paid
their way by giving drawing lessons three
times week in the institution. If Rosa did
not love school, she must be taught something
useful and she was accordingly placed in
sewing establishment to become a seamstress.
The child hated sewing, ran the needle into
her fingers at every stitch cried for the fresh
air and sunshine, and finally becoming pale
and sickly was taken back to the Bonheur
home. The anxious pali Ter would try his
child once more in school: so he arranged
that she should attend, with compensation
met i'll the same was for his boys Rosa
soon became a favorite with the girls at the
Fauborg st. Antoine school, especially be-
cause she could draw such witty caricatures
of the teachers, which she pasted against the
wall with bread chewed into the consistency
OF putty. The teachers were not pleased.
but SO struck were they with the viCor and
originality of the drawings that they carefully
preserved the sketches in an album
AN UNHAPPY GIRL
The girl was far from happy. Naturally
sensitive, as what poet or painter was ever
born otherwise, she could not bear to wear a
calico dress and course shoes and eat with an
iron spoon from tin cup when the other
girls wore handsome dresses and had silver
mugs and spoons She grew melancholy.
neglected her books and finally became so i'll
that she was obliged to be taken home
And now Raymond Bonheur very wisely
decided not to make plans for his child for
time. but see what was her natural ten
dency. 1t was well that be made this de-
cision in time before she had been spoiled by
his well meant but poor intentions. Left to
herself she constantly hung about her
fathers studio, now drawing, now modelling
copying whatever she saw him do She
seemed never 10 be tired, but sang at her
work all the day long.
Monsieur Bonheur suddenly awoke to the
fact that his daughter had great talent He
began to teach her carefully to make her ac-
curate in drawing and correct in perception
Then he sent her to the Louvre to copy the
works of the old masters. Here she worked
with the greatest industry and enthusiasm,
not observing anything that was going on
around ker. SAID the director of the Louvre.
II have never seen an example Of such appl- /
cation and such ardor for work"
One day an elderly English gentleman
stopped beside her easel and said: Your copy, !
my child, is superb. faultlessl Persevere as
you have begun and prophesy that you will
be a great artist" How glad these few words |
made her. She went home thinking over to
herself the determine ion she had made in the
school when she ate with her iron SPOON that |
sometime she would be as famous as her
schoolmateS. and have some of the comforts |
of life
COPYING THE OLD MASTERS.
Her copies of the old masters were soon /
sold, and though they brought small prices, |
she gladly gave the money to her father, who |
needed it now more than ever. His second |
wife had two sons when he married her, and |
now they had a third, German, and every
cent that Rosa could earn was needed to help !
support seven children. la Mamiche,' as |
they called the new mother, was an excellent |
manager of the meaGer finances, and filled |
her place well.
Rosa was now Il, loving landscape, his
torical and genre painting perhaps equally. |
but happening to paint goat she was so
pleased in the work that she determined to
make animal paintings a speciality. Having
no money to procure models, she must needs
make long walks into the country on foot to
the farms. She would take piece of bread
in her pocket and generally forget to eat it.
After working all day she would come home
tired, often drenched with rain, and her shoes
covered with mud.
She took other means to study animals In
the outskirts of Paris were great abattoirs or
slaughter pens. Though the girl tenderly
loved animals and shranS from the sight of
suffering she forced herself to see the killing
that she might know how to depict the death
dronv on canvas Though obliged to nlingle
more or less with droverS and butchers no in
dignity was ever offered her. As she sat on
a bundle of hay with her colors about her
they would crowd around to look at the pic
ture and regard her with honest pride The
world soon learns whether girl is in earnest
about her work and treats her accordingly
Sarah X. Bolton.
palace Cars Made for Racchorses.
Most of the big horsemen own their