A GREAT ARTIST
Reading edition
I.
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Rosa Bonheur now spent all her time in painting animals. She took long trips into the country to find animals to sketch. There she drew flocks of sheep, oxen at work, and cows standing in the long grass.
Sometimes she went into pens where animals were kept, both in the country and in the city of Paris. Because her long skirts were in the way of her work she often dressed as men do.
Her pictures were shown in Paris with those of great artists. When she was only nineteen years old, she won her first prize. This was a great honor.
One of her finest pictures is called "Oxen Plowing." It was finished just before her father's death. He was greatly interested in this picture. When it was done, he was proud and happy to see that his daughter had become a great artist.
Painting by Rosa Bonheur.
Oxen Plowing.
Rosa Bonheur spent the last years of her life in a home of her own, not far from Paris. Near by was a beautiful forest, and in a park close to the house she kept a number of wild animals.
The studio in which the artist worked was very interesting. Paintings hung on the walls and stood about the room. Birds sang in their cages. Dogs and other pets walked about or lay on the skins of wild animals which covered the floor.
To this home came many poor people, whom the great artist was always glad to help. She was kind to every one, and even the animals loved her.
II.
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A large lion named Nero was one of Rosa's pets, and he often lay in the studio while she painted her pictures.
Once, when she was leaving home for a long trip, she was obliged to send Nero away. On her return she went to see him in one of the parks of Paris. She found him in a cage, sick and blind.
"Nero, my poor Nero!" she exclaimed; "what has happened to you?"
Painting by Rosa Bonheur.
THE HORSE FAIR.
The poor beast heard her voice. He crawled to the bars of the cage, where he could feel her hand stroking his head. So great was the love he showed that Rosa had him taken again to her home, and she cared for him as long as he lived. He died clinging with his great paws to the mistress he had loved so well.
Rosa Bonheur's most wonderful painting is "The Horse Fair." The artist spent nearly two years in drawing horses before she began this great work. The picture is so large that she was obliged to use a stepladder to reach some parts of it.
"The Horse Fair" was bought by an American, and it can be seen in the Museum of Art in New York city.
When the French people wish to honor an artist, they give him the cross of the Legion of Honor. The Empress had often seen Rosa Bonheur sketching in the forest, and she thought her the greatest of animal painters.
One morning when Rosa Bonheur was painting in her studio, the Empress came into the room and hung a beautiful white cross around the artist's neck.
No woman had ever before worn the cross of the Legion of Honor.