heur had gone up
as a youth to Paris to study art. After the usual apprenticeship to
privation which art exacts from her servants, he had become moderately
successful, when the condition of his parents, now old and
poorly-off, moved him to return to Bordeaux and do what he could to
make their life easier. As the chances for a professional artist were
small, he adopted the modest employment of drawing-teacher. His skill
soon brought him pupils; among them a young lady from Altona, between
whom and her teacher a mutual interest sprang up which led to their
marriage. Raymond Bonheur brought his wife home to his father's house,
where she was welcomed as a daughter, and for the brief term of her
life all went well. What the husband earned by his drawing-lessons,
the wife supplemented by her lessons in music; but this happiness was
not to last. The parents of Raymond Bonheur died, and then, after not
more than twelve years of marriage, the wife died, leaving behind her
four children, Rosalie, Francois-Auguste, Jules-Isidore, and Juliette.

[Illustration: Rosa Bonheur.]

Rosalie is the best known of these four children of Raymond Bonheur;
but each of them has honorably connected his name with the art of
modern France. Francois-Auguste has a reputation as an animal-painter
almost equal to that of his sister Rosa. A fine picture painted by
him, "Cattle in the Forest of Fontainebleau," was once the property of
the late A. T. Stewart. His merit secured him the Cross of the Legion
of Honor in 1867. He died in 1880. The other brother, Jules-Isidore,
has gained distinction as a sculptor of animals; most of his work is
on a small scale, but he has designed some large pieces that decorate
his sister's chateau near Fontainebleau. Juliette Bonheur married a M.
Peyrol, and joining her family-name to his, is known in the art-world
as Mme. Peyrol Bonheur. It is thus she signs her pictures, mostly
still-life and animal subjects, which have gained for her a good
position among the minor artists of France.

Rosa, the eldest of the family, born in 1822, was ten years old when
her mother died. Not long after, Raymond Bonheur decided to leave
Bordeaux and to return to Paris, where the chances for professional
success were better than in a provincial town, and where there were
greater opportunities for the education of his young children. The
change proved very distasteful, however, to the little ones.
Accustomed to the comparative freedom of t