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Rosa's Animals: The Story of Rosa Bonheur and Her Painting Menagerie

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Rosa's Animals: The Story of Rosa Bonheur and Her Painting Menagerie
By Maryann Macdonald
Abrams, 2018. Biography.

There's a good chance that Rosa Bonheur is the most famous artist you've never heard of. The first woman to earn a French Legion of Honor, Rosa Bonheur was a successful Realist painter in the 19th century when women weren't usually allowed to train as artists. Thanks to special training from her father, Rosa grew up to have her impressively naturalistic paintings of animals displayed at the French Salon and all over the world. This book introduces readers to Bonheur and marvels at her extraordinary life - she was a friend of Buffalo Bill Cody, she kept a miniature zoo complete with three lions at her home near Fontainebleau, and received a special permit to dress as a man and visit the Paris Horse Fair.

This is a well compiled biography about a female artist many children will likely not learn about in school. The text isn't jazzed up or bedazzled like many children's biographies tend to be, but her unbelievably non-traditional life is enough to hold the interest of those impressed by animals, Art History, or women ahead of their time.
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