Rosa Bonheur (1822–1899) was the great painter of animals in nineteenth-century France. Encouraged by her father, the Jewish and Humanist painter Raimond Bonheur (1796–1849), who believed girls should be educated alongside boys, Bonheur began drawing at a very early age. By 1848, her painting Ploughing in the Nivernais (Musée d’Orsay) was included in the Salon; it was highly regarded and brought her immediate success. At the 1853 Salon, she exhibited The Horse Fair (The Metropolitan Museum of Art), which established Bonheur as one of the leading painters of her time. Although it was rare for women to be accepted as artists, her skill was undeniable, and her works were widely sold and reproduced. In 1865, she became the first woman to be admitted to the Legion d’Honneur and was promoted to Officer of the Order in 1894. Her work achieved extraordinary international success, particularly in Britain and the United States, where The Horse Fair became one of the most widely reproduced images of the nineteenth century.

Bonheur studied animal anatomy firsthand in farms and slaughterhouses, developing a level of anatomical precision that distinguished her from her contemporaries. Bonheur had a deep love and respect for animals and believed they possessed a soul. In her works, she paid particular attention to the animals’ eyes, giving them expressions that suggest a distinct individuality. By the late nineteenth century, Bonheur had achieved an international reputation and remains one of the most celebrated woman artists of her era.