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ROSA BONHEUR, 235
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
-Afta— At The Southern End Of The Rue D'...
spoon , tin mug , and empty pockets , felt keenly the inferiority of her position in comparison with that of her companions . Her father
was as good , and as clever , as the fathers of the other _piipils ; why , then , was he not rich like them ? And why must she wear calico ,
and drink out of tin , while the other girls had beautiful silk dresses and silver mugs ? Too generous to be envious , and treated with
constant kindness and affection by the other pupils , with whom she remained as great a favourite as ever , the proud and sensitive child
yet recoiled instinctively from a contact which awakened in her mind an Unreasoning sense of injustice , and humiliated her , as she
felt , for no fault of her own . She had no wish to deprive her little companions of the superior advantages of their lotbut she longed
, to be in possession of similar conditions ; and tormented herself day and night , with pondering on the pecuniary and social
difficulties by which she found herself surrounded , and seeking to devise some plan by which they might be overcome ; and to this period ,
with its secret mental experiences , is to be traced that firm resolve to achieve a name and a place for herself in the world , to a
perception of whose social facts she was now beginning to awaken , which sustained her through the subsequent phases of her artistic
development . Yet this resolve , though prompted , as we have seen , by a galling * sense of the humbler character of her wardrobeand "
be-, longings , " pointed less to the acquisition of greater elegance of dress and personal conditions—to which she has subsequently shown _,
herself almost _indifferent—than to the attainment of a superior and independent social position . She was determined
to he _sometliing _, though she could not see what , and felt no doubt whatever of accomplishing this purpose though as
yet she had no idea of the mode in which it was to . be carried out . Meantime , her secret discontent preyed on her spirits
and affected her health . She became reserved and gloomy ; and while seeking , with feverish anxiety to devise the sort of work that
should enable her to gain for herself the superior position she so ardently coveted , she became more and more neglectful of her
studies , until her teachers and her father being alike discouraged hy her seeming idleness , the latter withdrew her from the school , and
once more took her home . More than ever perplexed as to what to do with her , her father ,
¦ while endeavouring to strike out some new plan for her , now left his daughter for a time entirely to herself . Thus abandoned to her
own spontaneous actions , Rosa—who felt that the idle and aimless life she had hitherto led was little calculated to help her to the
realization of her secret ambition , and who was full of unacknowledged regret and remorse for her incapacity and
uselessnesssought refuge from her own uncomfortable thoughts in her father ' s studio , where she amused herself with imitating everything' she saw
him do , drawing and modelling " , day after day , with the utmost . diligence and delight , and perfectly happy as long as she had in her
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Rosa Bonheur, 235
ROSA BONHEUR _, 235
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), June 1, 1858, page 235, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01061858/page/19/
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