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Art is a Tyrant: The Unconventional Life of Rosa Bonheur
A new biography of the wildly unconventional 19th-century animal painter and gender equality pioneer Rosa Bonheur, from the author of the acclaimed Mistress of Paris and Renoir's Dancer. Rosa Bonheur was the very antithesis of the feminine ideal of 19th-century society. She was educated, she shunned traditional 'womanly' pursuits, she rejected marriage - and she wore trousers. But the society whose rules she spurned accepted her as one of their own, because of her genius for painting animals. She shared an intimate relationship with the eccentric, self-styled inventor Nathalie Micas, who nurtured the artist like a wife. Together Rosa, Nathalie and Nathalie's mother bought a chateau and with Rosa's menagerie of animals the trio became one of the most extraordinary households of the day. Catherine Hewitt's compelling new biography is an inspiring evocation of a life lived against the rules.
448 pages, Hardcover
First published February 6, 2020
21 people are currently reading
327 people want to read
About the author
Catherine Hewitt
4 books50 followersCatherine Hewitt’s academic career began with a passion for 19th-century French art, literature and social history. Her doctoral research uncovered the remarkable story of a forgotten 19th-century courtesan, and after being awarded her PhD, she set out on her career in biography. Catherine’s first book, The Mistress of Paris, was awarded the runner-up’s prize in the 2012 Biographers’ Club Tony Lothian competition for the best proposal by an uncommissioned, first-time biographer. Based on meticulous research, Catherine’s writing seeks to lift history out of the dusty annals of academia and bring its characters and events to life for the 21st-century reader. Her writing introduces real people, telling their stories in intimate detail and enabling readers to share their successes and frustrations. As well as writing, Catherine lectures and runs workshops on 19th-century French art, literature and social history, always seeking to share her enthusiasm for French history and culture. She also works as a translator, and past projects have included translating a permanent exhibition of the work of the radical French female painter Suzanne Valadon for a gallery near Limoges in France.
Catherine lives in a village in Surrey, UK. When she is not writing, she can be found helping restore her family’s house in the middle of rural France, cooking, reading and enjoying country walks with her little black cockerpoo, Alfie.
Catherine lives in a village in Surrey, UK. When she is not writing, she can be found helping restore her family’s house in the middle of rural France, cooking, reading and enjoying country walks with her little black cockerpoo, Alfie.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
May 24, 2020
Well-researched, well-written, entertaining and enjoyable, this is exactly what a good biography should be. Good balance between the life and the work, plenty of well-chosen illustrations, and a thoughtful and insightful text. Excellent.
January 13, 2021
Rosa's struggle & persistent endeavor to become one of the most successful & outspoken woman artist in the 19th century makes for one of the most intriguing biographies I’ve ever read.
This biography made me as the French say:
buveur d’encre, a drinker of ink.
This biography made me as the French say:
buveur d’encre, a drinker of ink.
February 20, 2024
This absolute legend had as pets: panthers, a horse named panther, an otter that was often found in her mother in laws bed, a lion named Nero, an eagle?, A squirrel that slept in a plaster bust, and some goats. Oh and possibly polar bears that one time.
June 19, 2024
This books was very readable and a lot lighter than I expected. Every chapter ends in a cliffhanger of sorts and contains a sensible amount of information on every significant state in the life of the painter Rosa Bonheur. To top it off, it does not dwell excessively on Bonheur's sexuality or gender idiosyncrasies. If you read a lot of the most recent scholarship and articles about the painter you'd think her most important contribution to history was her lesbianism and defiance of gender conventions. Catherine Hewitt does not skirt the subject but focuses on what matters: Rosa Bonheur's life work and, only when opportune, how she managed to overcome prejudice just by being herself.
Reading this book I'd point out three major ideas about RB's meteoric rise:
*One would be her happy but unusual childhood.
She grew up with a loving -if somewhat struggling- father. Raymond Bonheur was painter who married slightly above his station and was a devoted disciple of Saintsimonianism, a sort of early form of socialism. His association with the followers of Count Saint-Simon often took him away from his family or work duties. It strained his marriage. Among other things, this ideology advocated the equality of women in society. Raymond B. was aware of Rosa's talents and lack of enthusiasm for formal schooling. He gave her the first lessons in the rudiments of art and eventually accepted his daughter would have to earn a living as an artists. Considering the place of women in the art world at the time of post-revolutionary France, it must have not been an easy decision. (The exception to the rule would be the portrait artist Mdme. Vigee Lebrun which both Rosa and her father admired enormously and whose independence set an example Rosa herself would one day follow). Rosas' mother , also a loving influence and quite in tune with her children when it came to their education, died quite young to the consternation of the whole family. Her siblings, Isidore, Auguste and Juliette would also show talent, benefit from a similar artistic education and rise in the ranks. All competent in their own right, none reached the dizzying heights their sister managed to climb.
* Sheer talent
Rosa Bonheur was talented and relied on that talent alone to shut up any critics regarding her perceived non-conforming to gender norms. By the age of thirty three she had already triumphed in the Paris Salon with her imposing canvases . Praise and awards were heaped on her. The highest form of praise usually took the odd form of "she paints like a man". As if treating her as an equal had to be justified by such an odd assessment. As someone who has seen the enormous "Ploughing the Nivernais" at Gare D'Orsay I can attest to its spectacular presence. Everything else becomes anecdotal: her quest to be permitted to wear pants, her smoking, her hunting and keeping animals in the atelier, etc.. Two figures accompany Rosa that are instrumental to her success. Her life companion: Nathalie Micas, an interesting woman who did much of the assisting necessary for orderly life as well as an inventor herself. And the art merchant Gambart, who first purchased "The Horse Fair" for an astronomical sum but made it back in spades and who organized publicity, printing and much of the best travel Rosa enjoyed, some of it in Scotland and Nice. when Rosa was in her seventies she's meet Anna Klumpke, an American artists who would eventually become her sole partner and heir.
* An Animalist you say?
Rosa painted animals and, in order to do so he studied, collected, sought out and loved them. She also hunted them, she was not the sentimental type. Most would frown at some of her dealings with otters, mustangs, mufflons, lions and tigers and other exotic species today but there is no doubt that she just couldn't get enough of her studying and painting their every mood and hair. She has been often compared to the other gran animalist Landseer (who made a bad awkward joke about wanting to marry her in one occasion). She elevated this niche form of art to the stratosphere due to her assiduous study of creatures.
I think those three things permeate the book, family, work and love of nature. But the book has a lot more regarding her fabulous studio in the house of BY at Thomery, the vicissitudes of the Franco-Prussian war, her desire to know more about America and native Americans, her encounters with kings and empresses , etc.. certainly a fun read for any lover of this woman's magnificent career.
Reading this book I'd point out three major ideas about RB's meteoric rise:
*One would be her happy but unusual childhood.
She grew up with a loving -if somewhat struggling- father. Raymond Bonheur was painter who married slightly above his station and was a devoted disciple of Saintsimonianism, a sort of early form of socialism. His association with the followers of Count Saint-Simon often took him away from his family or work duties. It strained his marriage. Among other things, this ideology advocated the equality of women in society. Raymond B. was aware of Rosa's talents and lack of enthusiasm for formal schooling. He gave her the first lessons in the rudiments of art and eventually accepted his daughter would have to earn a living as an artists. Considering the place of women in the art world at the time of post-revolutionary France, it must have not been an easy decision. (The exception to the rule would be the portrait artist Mdme. Vigee Lebrun which both Rosa and her father admired enormously and whose independence set an example Rosa herself would one day follow). Rosas' mother , also a loving influence and quite in tune with her children when it came to their education, died quite young to the consternation of the whole family. Her siblings, Isidore, Auguste and Juliette would also show talent, benefit from a similar artistic education and rise in the ranks. All competent in their own right, none reached the dizzying heights their sister managed to climb.
* Sheer talent
Rosa Bonheur was talented and relied on that talent alone to shut up any critics regarding her perceived non-conforming to gender norms. By the age of thirty three she had already triumphed in the Paris Salon with her imposing canvases . Praise and awards were heaped on her. The highest form of praise usually took the odd form of "she paints like a man". As if treating her as an equal had to be justified by such an odd assessment. As someone who has seen the enormous "Ploughing the Nivernais" at Gare D'Orsay I can attest to its spectacular presence. Everything else becomes anecdotal: her quest to be permitted to wear pants, her smoking, her hunting and keeping animals in the atelier, etc.. Two figures accompany Rosa that are instrumental to her success. Her life companion: Nathalie Micas, an interesting woman who did much of the assisting necessary for orderly life as well as an inventor herself. And the art merchant Gambart, who first purchased "The Horse Fair" for an astronomical sum but made it back in spades and who organized publicity, printing and much of the best travel Rosa enjoyed, some of it in Scotland and Nice. when Rosa was in her seventies she's meet Anna Klumpke, an American artists who would eventually become her sole partner and heir.
* An Animalist you say?
Rosa painted animals and, in order to do so he studied, collected, sought out and loved them. She also hunted them, she was not the sentimental type. Most would frown at some of her dealings with otters, mustangs, mufflons, lions and tigers and other exotic species today but there is no doubt that she just couldn't get enough of her studying and painting their every mood and hair. She has been often compared to the other gran animalist Landseer (who made a bad awkward joke about wanting to marry her in one occasion). She elevated this niche form of art to the stratosphere due to her assiduous study of creatures.
I think those three things permeate the book, family, work and love of nature. But the book has a lot more regarding her fabulous studio in the house of BY at Thomery, the vicissitudes of the Franco-Prussian war, her desire to know more about America and native Americans, her encounters with kings and empresses , etc.. certainly a fun read for any lover of this woman's magnificent career.
July 2, 2023
my own reliable foothold into reading is a full scale art history biography. this one includes: rat pâté, a lioness descending the stairs, permission to cross dress, divine affection, & the Germans melting statues for munitions (of course.)
May 16, 2020
This latest book by Catherine Hewitt is as diligently researched as her previous two works. I was not familiar with Rosa Bonheur prior to reading this biography, however Catherine’s attention to detail drew me in to a fascinating read. There are several parallels to be drawn between Rosa Bonheur and modern day themes; in many ways Rosa Bonheur was a woman ahead of her time.
April 3, 2022
Not particularly well written; good introduction for those who don't know the artist.
May 23, 2022
As a fan of 19th-century animal painting, and horses, I instantly succumbed to the siren call of this hefty bio of one of the greats, French painter Rosa Bonheur. Her massive, dramatic canvas of The Horse Fair graces the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and was an international sensation. (I can't resist pointing out that it sold at auction for an enormous sum to magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who within days donated it to the Met because he felt such a work of art should be "permanently accessible to the public." Imagine.) She herself was a brave, self-assured perfectionist artist, who pooh-poohed "women's rights...women's nonsense," believing that one's work would be enough to succeed. She lived as she chose, with cropped hair, endless cigarettes, velvet trousers, a multifarious menagerie of horses, cattle, sheep, goats, dogs, lions, a tiger, mouflons.... Lucky Rosa. Eldest daughter of an artist father who nurtured and supported her talents (as well as those of her siblings), Rosa lived through a tumultuous period of French history, encompassing the revolutions of 1830, 1848, the Franco-Prussian War and its bloody aftermath, all on the cusp of the great artistic revolution that saw Impressionism and modern art creeping up on the more academic and romantic schools to which she belonged. Her first submissions to the huge annual Salon exhibition were accepted, and well-reviewed as charming, impressive, and who'd-think-a-woman-could-be-this-good? Her career was launched, and she spent the rest of her life drawing, sketching, studying, and painting the animals with which she surrounded herself while the household was run by her devoted companion of many years, Nathalie Micas.
And that's pretty much the story as told by Catherine Hewitt. Rosa won awards, was given medals, visited by royalty, flitting among her estates outside Paris and Nice, plus the pied-a-terre in Paris. She was wealthy, much admired, famous, entertaining Buffalo Bill Cody and a lot of equally wealthy noble socialites. After a while, it starts to read like a People magazine bio. We are told over and over again how hard she worked at her painting, but we learn very little about the art itself. There are thirteen not-particularly-high-quality color photos of paintings in the book, and five of them are portraits of Rosa herself by others. The title is referenced only in an epigram at the front of the book, and very little in the book itself makes it sound as though Bonheur actually felt that her art was a "tyrant" - it was what she did, what she wanted to do, what she chose to devote herself to, and was the happiest in doing. I am generally in absolute favor of popular biography, in readable , warm-hearted books to excite and interest and engage readers in serious subjects, but Hewitt has opted for a rather breathless tone that detracts. She has a propensity to end chapters or segments with clumsy cliff-hangers: "...just a few weeks later, France was rocked by some devastating news," "...just a few weeks later, something incredible happened," "...there was a professional surprise in store - for Rosa was about to become front-page news across the world." I started rolling my eyes. They kept rolling when Hewitt used odd verbs to presumably "punch up" quoted speech or writing: an art journal "arraigns" a critical comment; Rosa "effervesces" her pleased opinion of a visitor. And when Rosa and Nathalie spend some months traveling in France in their own, both in their late twenties, Hewitt repeatedly refers to them as "the girls."
So, I learned a lot about Rosa Bonheur, which was nice. I also very much enjoyed the incident when a rich American approached her about illustrating a stud book he was developing for breeding Percheron horses in Illinois (where I live). The gentleman's name was Dunham, and I realized that I myself had competed in horse shows on the estate owned by his family, which still houses equestrian facilities.
But overall, this starry-eyed, not-very-well-written volume is a 400+ page puff piece. For art history geeks only, and they may wish for something with a bit more meat (Bonheur apparently had few qualms about eating the animals she had been painting) to it.
And that's pretty much the story as told by Catherine Hewitt. Rosa won awards, was given medals, visited by royalty, flitting among her estates outside Paris and Nice, plus the pied-a-terre in Paris. She was wealthy, much admired, famous, entertaining Buffalo Bill Cody and a lot of equally wealthy noble socialites. After a while, it starts to read like a People magazine bio. We are told over and over again how hard she worked at her painting, but we learn very little about the art itself. There are thirteen not-particularly-high-quality color photos of paintings in the book, and five of them are portraits of Rosa herself by others. The title is referenced only in an epigram at the front of the book, and very little in the book itself makes it sound as though Bonheur actually felt that her art was a "tyrant" - it was what she did, what she wanted to do, what she chose to devote herself to, and was the happiest in doing. I am generally in absolute favor of popular biography, in readable , warm-hearted books to excite and interest and engage readers in serious subjects, but Hewitt has opted for a rather breathless tone that detracts. She has a propensity to end chapters or segments with clumsy cliff-hangers: "...just a few weeks later, France was rocked by some devastating news," "...just a few weeks later, something incredible happened," "...there was a professional surprise in store - for Rosa was about to become front-page news across the world." I started rolling my eyes. They kept rolling when Hewitt used odd verbs to presumably "punch up" quoted speech or writing: an art journal "arraigns" a critical comment; Rosa "effervesces" her pleased opinion of a visitor. And when Rosa and Nathalie spend some months traveling in France in their own, both in their late twenties, Hewitt repeatedly refers to them as "the girls."
So, I learned a lot about Rosa Bonheur, which was nice. I also very much enjoyed the incident when a rich American approached her about illustrating a stud book he was developing for breeding Percheron horses in Illinois (where I live). The gentleman's name was Dunham, and I realized that I myself had competed in horse shows on the estate owned by his family, which still houses equestrian facilities.
But overall, this starry-eyed, not-very-well-written volume is a 400+ page puff piece. For art history geeks only, and they may wish for something with a bit more meat (Bonheur apparently had few qualms about eating the animals she had been painting) to it.
March 11, 2023
An extraordinary book about an extraordinary woman! A very thorough biography. Truth is I never heard of her but because my artwork is of animals I was very much drawn to this book. This was the 1800's and women artists couldn't compete with a man's but Rosa's work eventually became very well respected and won top awards. This was also a time when women needed to get a written permit to wear trousers! What!? She became well known for that and people who visited her were disappointed when she didn't have them on. She had a house filled with a variety of animals and when she became an exceptional artist people gave her all kinds of animals which she kept on her grounds. I would have very much liked her as a friend. Also the book has good photos of her paintings and Rosa. I highly recommend it.
December 19, 2024
I tried to read this book in hopes of learning more about Rosa Bonheur. What I got instead was a more detailed look into the everyday humdrum of the day to day life starting with her parents until I do not know when. I lost interest long before she even grew up. I returned the book to the library without finishing it after a few weeks because it was so boring, drawn out and pointless. The author had no thesis to speak of, just narrative and description. If you want to know everything about Rosa, from the childhoods of her parents on, read this book. If the style of Jane Austen is not boring enough for you, read this book. The reproductions in the middle of the book are nice. How this book got any good reviews is beyond me.
November 5, 2025
I really enjoyed this biography of an artist I was not familiar with. Her achievements in 19th century France, when women were at a disadvantage in a male-dominated sphere, shows how talented Rosa Bonheur was.
The book not only tells us about her life but also sets it in context of what was happening historically in France, so we get a full picture of events around her life. Catherine Hewitt brings Rosa Bonheur's story to life and i will be reading more of her books in the future.
Well worth a read if you are interested in art, history, or just interesting and pioneering women.
The book not only tells us about her life but also sets it in context of what was happening historically in France, so we get a full picture of events around her life. Catherine Hewitt brings Rosa Bonheur's story to life and i will be reading more of her books in the future.
Well worth a read if you are interested in art, history, or just interesting and pioneering women.
August 22, 2024
The title intrigued me enough to pick up the book, knowing nothing about Rosa Bonheur and not much about France in the 19th century. Fascinating stories about both the artist and the times. Some of her art in the book was familiar after all. Despite the 400+ page length, I finished it in three days, turning back to read whenever I could.
December 6, 2024
While I’m not particularly fond of animal realism as an art form I appreciate Rosa Bonheur’s mastery as a painter and I thoroughly enjoyed this biography of an amazing and pioneering woman. Well written and meticulously researched it is an interesting and captivating read.
March 2, 2021
An incredible book about the incredible story of an incredible woman and artist.
November 2, 2021
One of the most fascinating books I have read in a long while. Highly recommended.
June 20, 2022
A well-written book about a great woman artist whom I've never heard of. I'm so glad that Catherine Hewitt took the time to unearth Rosa's life and bring it to the light of current day.
October 28, 2025
Superb account of an artist journey. I got a little tired about 2/3 through but definitely one to read!
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews