Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 July 1899 — ROSA BONHEUR. [ARTICLE]

ROSA BONHEUR.

Interesting Facts About th? Life of the Great French Artist. J. C. Walker, of the Virginia Hotel, met Miss Bonheur through his acquaintance with Anne Klumpke, the American girl who has been living with the artist at the Chateau By, and who recently painted her portrait and sent it to the Carnegie gallery at Pittsburg. Mr. Walker told some interesting stories of Miss Bonhenr’s life recently: “I had expected to find Miss Bonheur large and masculine,” Mr. Walker said. “Instead I found her a little woman, charmingly modest and retiring. She had a strong face, but her eyes were those of an 18-year-old girl. They were the most remarkable eyes I ever saw. She had a soft voice, and she was devotedly fond of music, though she did not sing or play. The people about her Chateau, which is forty miles from Paris, simply worshiped her. “The first time I met her was the day before her seventy-seventh birthday. No one would have dreamed she was so old. Her manner was that of a woman of 35, and she was in as close touch with the world as any resident of Paris. She came to the little 12 o’clock dejeuner in the jacket and trousers she always wore outside of Paris. In spite of her dress, none would have called her masculine. I tuink the way in which she wore her hair was responsible for the mannish look some of her pictures have. “It has been printed that she had spent some time In England, but I cannot believe that is true. She did not know a word of English, and I think if she had ever been in England she certainly would have picked up a good deal of the language. “I think she must have left her greatest painting unfinished. The picture exhibited in this year’s salon is a small affair compared with the 'Horse Show.’ The unfinished picture which I saw In her studio covered nearly one end of the room. I think it was intended to be Something like the ‘Horse Fair.’ I remember there were three or four immense figures of horses sketched on the canvas. “Her studio was a curious place. There were stuffed horses’ heads and horses’ manes hung all around the room—models, I suppose. The walls were covered with sketches of horses and other animals. But in the last few years all her pet wild animals, of which she made so much, had beeq sent away. In her house, however, there were hundreds of birds.”—Chicago Tribune.