Rosa Bonheur’s life and artistic career both were quite unusual for a woman in the 19th century. Since her family believed in equal upbringing, Bonheur and her sisters received an education equal to that of her brothers. Early on she refused to be reduced to the typical “female” subject matters such as portraiture, or still life painting.

At age 14 she started to copy paintings at the Louvre and became what is known in French as an “animalière” –a female painter of animals.