The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-10-22
LUCKY AMERICAN GIRL
LITTLE ANNA KLUMPKE FALLS
HEIR TO ROSA BONHEUR's
MILLIONS
PRICELESS ART TREASURES

Miss KIumpke, From Struggling
Artist in Paris Becomes Suddenly
Enriched by the Greatest Woman
Artist in the WOrId-The Girl,
However,, Is the Center of Bat
tie for Miss Bonheur's Wealth.
To an American girl Rosa Bonheur,
The great animal painter, has left her foT-
tune. The forests of Fontainebleau rustic
with the news. The wind blows it from
leaf to leaf. The animals that roam there
at liberty, tame and wild. whine and
howl it by night. The birds twittering
to one another chip it from branch to
branch
Rosa Bonheur is dead
"Our friend who appreciated us; our
protector. who befriended US, is dead.
''Wh no is this woman who will reign in
her stead?
Whence comes she?
What is she?
''NVho knows herr"
And in response a thousand murmurs
float in the echo of the breezes. The first
and most startling announces briefly that
says the New York Journal.
Search as you may in all the annals of
the Bonheur pedigree there appears
never a Kumpke-father. son, nephew or
niece Not even is there a connection,
however remote. of the name.
What tie was there that made the IA
nous painter bequeath to this Anna
Klum PIKE the fortune coveted by rela-
tives"
One bond only there was-the eternal
bond of friendship.
Rosa Bonheur met Anna I<lumpke when
life's ftful fever was almost spent. She
met and loved her. She sought to attest
the full value of this feeling, the depth CT
the desire she had to see her happy and
prosperous, by making her her heir.
To her she has left first the chateau at
By a fortune in itself.
Inside it is one vast museum of the ar
lists works. Two large. rooms filed with
sketches Portfolios of them are piled
upon floors and tables. They are repre-
sensations of the work Of lifetime ex-
quisfte witnesses of the patience and
perseverance that attained perfection
They are worth more than their weight
in gold Yet Rosa Bonheur has always
refused TO sci them. It was supposed
that at her death they would go to the
museum of Louvre.
But that was before fair-hatred wom-
an came out of Western America to the
little village of By. with an enchanting
smile on her lips and the captivating
light of youth in her eyes.
To her is left besides, a fortune estl-
mated at many millions of francs-the
largest fortune ever achieved by French
woman. George Sands earned during her
lifetime one million francs, but, as she
acknowledged shortly before her death,
she had never saved a SOU Rosa Bon,
heur was more thrifty. For more than
forty years this greatest of animal paint
ers made from S25, 900 to S30, 900 a year, and
her expenses are said not to have eX-
ceeded one-ffth of this Anna Klumpke
is sole heir, to the exclusion OF family
connections and friends of lifetime.
She will therefore claim also the little
house in the Rue 'Assas,- where the ar
list lived for years and winch was lHq
rendezvous of all that was queer poor
and Bohemian in the artistic worlo OIL
Paris Ii was here that Nathahe Nlcas'
the friend of Rosa Bonheur's youth, pre-
was here that her best-known work, ire
Horse Fair" was painted. 1t was this
cottage that was finally converted INTO
temporary asylum for poor artists.
The great painter a thousand times dur
ing her career gave evidence OIL rare
and kindly nature, q. nature mouioed 'or
77erfact friendship. Two years ago Anna
K1unaulle entered into heSIfe and remain
ed until the end, which came on May 70
of this year. To the old woman living
alone on the edge of her forest it seemed
simple enough to leave what was hers
as she pleased, but in 50 doing she who
wished peace for her friend has placed her
in the center of a battle.
Rosa Bonheur's large fortune, so hon
orably won, is the subject of litigations
that threaten to be endless. AS many
unheard of relatives as cropped up TO
surround Admiral Dewey on his great
fete day have appeared i'll every part of
France to contest the will. Those who
never even counted in the great artists
circle of friends are nppermost in the
struggle Her nephews and nieces, her
two surviving sistecs--old women now
are mute with establishment Meanwhile,
In the great historic chateau seals have
been set upon all the doors except two.
Within these two lives the legatee, a
child of the West, daughter of the Cold
en- State
Anna Kumpke is a Californian. She
was born in San Francisco not more than
thirty years ago. Her father was a Hol-
lander her mother an American. 1t is
recorded of her, now that celebrity has
been thrust upon her, that her early ed
ucation took place in a public school in
San Francisco. Suddenly her mother, an
exceptional woman, discovered that she
had an exceptional child-a child who
should not be wasted upon the rocky
ridges Of the California coast, a child
who needed for her proper development
the environment of an artistic center.
Paris shortly became the home of the
kIumpkes.
-Four of them have since become distin-
guisEed. Augusta, the second daughter,
has devoted her life to the study Of rnedt-
cine and has married a physician. The
third, Dorothy, is distinguished mafh-
ematician and astronomer, in charge of
a department in the Paris observatory.
Julia, the youngest, Is a violinist, who has
the distinction of being Ysaye's most tai
ented pupil.
OF the quartette Anna, the first born