ndent in
manners, she used to caricature her teachers; and while walking
out into the country, she would draw, with charcoal or in sand, any
objects that met her eye. Her father was not long in detecting her
talent. She was wedded to her art from the very beginning, showing no
taste for or interest in any other subject. As soon as her father gave
permission to follow art as a profession, she devoted all her energy
to advancing herself in what she felt to be her life's work. For four
years the young girl could be seen every day at the Louvre, copying
the great masters and receiving principally from them her ideas of
coloring and harmony, while from her father she learned her technique.
After she had mastered these two principles, she decided to specialize
in pastoral nature.

From that time her whole life was given up to the study of Nature and
animals. Not able to study those near by, she procured a fine Beauvais
sheep, which served as her model for two years. From the very first
her work showed accuracy, purity, and an intuitive perception of
Nature, and these qualities soon placed her among the foremost artists
of the time. Her struggle for reputation and glory was not a long and
arduous one, for after 1845 her fame was established--she was then but
twenty-three years old; and after 1849, having exhibited some thirty
pictures, her reputation had become European.

In order to be able to study her models with greater ease and freedom
from the annoyance and coarse incivilities of the workmen at the
slaughter houses, farmyards, and markets that she was in the habit of
visiting, she adopted the garb of man.

Her honors in life were many, though always unsought. The Empress
Eugenie, while regent during the absence of Napoleon III., went
in person to her chateau and put around her neck the ribbon of the
decoration of the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor, then for the
first time bestowed upon woman for merit other than bravery and
charity. The Emperor Maximilian of Mexico conferred upon her the
decoration of San Carlos; the King of Belgium created her a chevalier
of his order, the first honor won by a woman; the King of Spain made
her a Commander of the Royal Order of Isabella the Catholic; and
President Carnot created her an Officer of the Legion of Honor.

With qualities such as she possessed, Rosa Bonheur could not fail
to attain immortality. Her success was due in no small degree to the
scientific instruction which