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 she received when a mere child; having
been taught, from the very first, how to paint directly from a model,
she supplemented this training by a period of four years of copying
great masters. In the latter period she studied Paul Potter's work
rather slavishly, but was individual enough to combine only the best
in him with the best in herself; this gave her an originality such as
possibly no other animal painter ever possessed---not even Landseer,
who is said to be "stronger in telling the story than in the manner of
telling it."

Rosa Bonheur was too independent and original to follow any particular
school or master, for her only inspiration and guide were her models,
always living near by and upon intimate terms with her. Thus, in all
her paintings, we instinctively feel that she painted from conviction,
from her own observation, nothing being added for mere artistic
effect. To some extent her pictures impress one as a perfect French
poem in which there is no superfluous word, in which no word could
be changed without destroying the effect of the whole; thus, in her
paintings there is not a superfluous brush stroke; everything is
necessary to the telling of the story; but she excels the perfect
poem, for, in French literature, it seldom has a message distinct
from its technique, while her pictures breath