elligence, will, love, and even
soul, in animals.

Her art and life inspired respect and admiration; we have nothing to
regret, nothing to conceal; we desire to love her for her animals, and
we must esteem her for her grand devotion to her art and family, for
her purity and charity, for her kindness to and love for those in the
lower walks of life, for her goodness and honesty. An illustration of
the last quality may be taken from her dealings with art collectors.
After having offered her _Horse Fair_, which she desired should remain
in France, to her own town for twelve thousand francs, she sold it for
forty thousand francs to Mr. Gambert, but with the condition which she
thus expressed: "I am grateful for your giving me such a noble
price, but I do not like to feel that I have taken advantage of your
liberality. Let us see how we can combine matters. You will not be
able to have an engraving made from so large a canvas; suppose I
paint you a small one of the same subject, of which I will make you a
present." Naturally, the gift was accepted, and the smaller canvas now
hangs in the National Gallery of London.

In all her dealings she showed this kindness and uprightness, sympathy
and honesty. Although numberless orders were constantly coming to
her, she never let them hurry her in her work. She was, possibly, the
highest and noblest type--certainly among great French women--of that
strong and solid virtue which constitutes the backbone and the very
essence of French national strength. The reputation of Rosa Bonheur
has never been blemished by the least touch of petty jealousy, hatred,
envy, vanity, or pride--and, among all great French women, she is one
of the few of whom this may be said. She won for herself and her noble
art the genuine and lasting sympathy of the world at large.

The only woman artist in France deserving a place beside Rosa Bonheur
belongs properly under the reign of Louis XVI., although she lived
almost to the middle of the nineteenth century. At the age of twenty,
Mme. Lebrun was already famous as the leading portrait painter; this
was during the most popular period of Marie Antoinette--1775 to 1785.
In 1775, but a young girl, admitted to all the sessions of the Academy
as recognition of her portraits of La Bruyere and Cardinal Fleury, she
made her life unhappy and gave her art a serious blow by consenting
to marry the then great art critic and collector of art, Lebrun. His
passion for gambling