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ROSA BONHEUR. 237
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'...
models , she went out daily into the country , on foot , in search of p ic turesque pocke views t , and and laden animals with , canvas for sketching and colors " . With , or a a mass bit of of bread clay
—for she was attracted equally towards painting and sculpture , and has shown that she would have succeeded equally in either—she used to set out earlin the morningand having * found a site
or a subject to her very mind y , seat herself on a , bank , or under a tree , , and work on till dusk ; coming * home at nightfall , after a tramp of
ten or a dozen miles , browned by sun and wind , soaked with rain , or covered with mud ; exhausted with fatigue , but rejoicing in the
lessons the day had furnished .-Her inability to procure models at homealso suggested to her
, another expedient whose adoption shews how earnest was her determination to overcome the obstacles which poverty had placed in the
way of her studies . The slaughtering and preparing of animals for the Paris market
is confined , as many of my readers are no doubt aware , to a few abattoirs ? great establishments on the outskirts of the city , placed
under the supervision of the municipal authorities ; each of these thousands establishments of lowing contains and extensive bleating * enclosures victims awaiting , in which 1 their are turn penned to be
led to the shambles . To one of these , the abattoir du . Route , had Rosa the courage to go daily , for many months , surmounting * alike
the repugnance which such a locality naturally inspired , and her equally natural hesitation to place herself in contact with the crowd
of butchers and drovers who filled it . Seated on a bundle of hay , with her colors beside hershe painted on from morning till dusk ,
not unfrequently forgetting * the bit of bread in her pocket , so absorbed would she become in the study of the varied types that
rendered the courts and stables of this establishment so invaluable a field of observation for her . Not content with drawing the
occupants of the abattoir in their pens , away from the sickening horror of the shambles , but feeling the necessity of studying their attitudes
under the terror and agony of the death-stroke , she compelled herself to make repeated visits to the slaughter-house and to look
upon scenes whose repulsiveness was rendered doubly painful to her by her affectionate sympathy with the brute creation . In the
evening on her return home , her hands , face , and clothes , were usually spotted all over by the flies , so numerous wherever animals
are congregated . Such was the respect with which she inspired often the rude beg companions to see her sketches by whom which , she was they surrounde regarded d , with and who the would most
naive admiration , that nothing , ever occurred to annoy her , in the _slihtest degreeduring her long sojourns in the crowded precincts
of g the abattoir . , After she had ceased to visit that establishmentshe frequented in
a similar manner , the stables of the Veterinary , School of Alfort ,
and the animals and museums of the Garden of Plants . She also
Rosa Bonheur. 237
ROSA BONHEUR . 237
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), June 1, 1858, page 237, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01061858/page/21/
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