Shakespeare Club meets Rosa Bonheur

Painting of Buffalo Bill Cody by Rosa Bonheur (1822–1899).

submitted by Joan Gaughan, Shakespeare Club

Many of the paintings of animals with which we are familiar, as well as the famous portrait of Buffalo Bill Cody shown here, came from the brush of a woman who, although she has now dropped into obscurity, was at one time the most famous painter in the world. As Sallie Anderson pointed out in her February 4 presentation, Rosa Bonheur (1822–99) grew up in a loving family that kept a menagerie of animals that Rosa loved to paint. A small woman known for her bad temper, as an adult she would don trousers and visit slaughterhouses in order to study the anatomy of the animals she so realistically and lovingly painted.

Although women were not recognized as “real” artists in the mid-19th century, one of her paintings, the massive 8’ x 16 ½’ Horse Fair was the hit of the Paris Salon in 1851 and eventually went to Cornelius Vanderbilt for the sum of $5,300. In 1865, she received the Legion of Honor from the Empress Eugenie. In an era when Impressionism was the fashion, Bonheur was criticized by the painter Paul Cezanne, who found one of her paintings to be “horribly like the real thing.”

In the Roll Call, we named our favorite female artist. Along with Mary Cassatt and the German painter Cathy Kollowitz, several local painters were named, including Elizabeth Whelan (Rosemary’s daughter), Nancy Feldkamp, Linda Pendergrass, and our own Barb Madaj.

February was a rough month for the club. Illness, serious enough to require hospitalization, felled two of the members. As a result, the second meeting of the month was first canceled, then rescheduled, and then canceled again.

However, we are looking forward to our next meeting, scheduled for March 11, when Franci van der Schalie will be talking about the role that glass has played in our lives.

by Sara Swanson

Sara Swanson is an editor, writer and a founder of the Manchester Mirror.