The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-06-07


do better than copying from Other artists
or in making mercy hurried sketches in
charcoal from her own Ders, as she had
been doing.
From that time she devoted herself SER
iously to painting animals from nature
II was during her early teens when this
Inspiration came to her, w :. most girls
think Of dress snd parties. Kosts recraa-
ton was to take rambles into the country
! districts around Parts
She dearly loved to go into the pastures
hare animals were grail, and sponi
tic whole day sketching item she was
50 poor that she walked to and from home
on these excurci0ns and carried her scanty
meas with her.
Her passion for painting animals led her
y visit the stock yards and a5a-t0irs Of
Paris. Here the coarse ASSOCIATIONS CT
dFoVers and butchers made her adopt boys
I costume. Stories without number are tod
Of her in Paris in this disguise, how she
Jostled with the stock yards men, sat on
boxes and fences all day sketching the ami
mails. and even set up her easel in the
slaughter houses and painted the poor ami
mails in their death agonies
She got into odd predicaments while thus
acting as a boy. The coarse but good-na-
tured men of the stock yards, who admired
the supposed boys pictures. would try to
get her drunk. She refused all liquor. but
accepted their cigarettes, and as long as
she lived she kept up the habit The men
then called her The Little Hussar," be-
cause Of her Independent ways.
AL this time she was so poor that even
~
had better fare than she One of the men
who scalded and dressed calves heads
noticed that the little artist who came SO
regularly brought only a few pieces of
bread, which answered for both breakfast
and lunch. So he took her to his own
house to share his monday meal.
Yet at this time, when her poverty was
greatest, she was on the eve of her first
success.
The two animal pictures that first gave
/ her fame were Of her house-top pets
They We're exhibited at the Paris Salon in
141, under the titles of Two Rabbits" and
"A Goat and Sheep" She was then only
nineteen years old.
After her success in having her first
pictures accepted in 1871 at the Salon she
made three paintings for the next year 5
exhibition. These were animals in Pas
ture," "A Cow Lying In a Meadow" and
a Horse for Sac For twelve years af-
I ter that she had pictures at each years
Salon. They became one Of the regularly
looked for features.
In 1853 appeared the painting which es-
tablished her fame, ''The Horse Fair"
now in the Metropolitan Art Museum. in
New York. She sold this originally for
5000, which at that time was fortune in
France. Ernest Gambart was the pur-
chaser. Upon receiving the money it
/ seemed such a large amount to Mile. Bon
huer that she voluntarily offered to paint
for him a qVarter-size copy of it. She
gave this to N. Gambart 50 that he could
have an engraving made of it and recover
some of the original cost price of his pic
ture. NJ Gambart afterward sold the
original at a ,oss to William p. Wright. Of
/ New York, for $500. He in turn sold it to
A. T. Stewart. the great New York dry
! goods king. for several times that price.
. When Stewards art collection was sold. in
I 1857, Cornelius Vanderbilt bought THE
Horse Fair for the Metropolitan Art Mu-
scum, and he paid for it $50 900. With the
Horse Fair money Rosa Bonheur was
able to buy the beautiful chateau of BY,
in Fountainebleau forest, near Paris.
where she died. rich old woman, the
other day
This chateau was built originally as a
hunting lodge by Marie de Medici Me.
Bonheur remodelled it, making the upper
story a large studio. It's floors were COW
! cred with the skins Of huge animals
T.-,11
artist owner had hunted and shot, and
some were the preserved skins Of pets.
/ This studio as often as not contained a
| lion, a tiger, a ferocious dog. that would
! strike a visitor with terror on entering.
/ Rosa Bonheur's influence over animals
! seemed to increase as she grew older. She
! was as fearless Of lions as she was Of cats.
| and seemed to inspire in those fierce
! beasts the same affection as in domestic
! animals. Nile. Bonheur went into the
! cages Of ions and tigers without whip or
! any weapon The animals never attacked
/ her. When the became acquainted with
her they would put up their heads to be
/ patted and scratched.
She even took to her home in the Fon-
/ tainebleau forest a lion that was 50 fierce
. that circus managers would not keep him.
In Rosa Bonheur's hands he became
/ tame and affectionate. Day after day she
would sit near him. painting his magnif-
/ cent figure, and occasionly rewarding his
! patient posing with a caress. When she
would become 50 absorbed in her work as
TO forget to do this, the lion would gently
/ out up his paw to attract her attention
and get the accustomed patting.
FOnaes b1T0~ofro 2, Mo T1--b.,,-