A Welcome Distraction (ca. 1900)

Madeleine Lemaire: A Welcome Distraction from Piano Practice

Procession of Flowers (ca. 1895)

Elisabeth Sonrel: Procession of Flowers

Tea in the Conservatory (1893)

Jeanne Samson: Tea in the Conservatory

Afternoon Tea at the Painter's Salon (1891)

Madeleine Lemaire: Afternoon Tea at the Painter's Salon

The Museum Visit (1886)

Julie Buchet: The Museum Visit

Les Peintres Femmes (1886)

Elisabeth Pillard: Les Peintres Femmes

Young Woman Bathing (1884)

Marguerite Arosa: Young Woman Bathing

Weaning the Calves (1879)

Rosa Bonheur: Weaning the Calves

The scene is probably located on one of the high pasturelands of the Pyrenees. Rosa Bonheur took a trip there in 1850 and brought back many studies that she used throughout her career. [Metropolitan Museum of Art]

The Monarch of the Herd (1868)

Rosa Bonheur: The Monarch of the Herd

Deer in the Moonlight (1867)

Rosa Bonheur: Deer in the Moonlight

Sheep by the Sea (1865)

Rosa Bonheur: Sheep by the Sea

Rosa Bonheur created Sheep by the Sea following a trip through the Scottish Highlands in the summer of 1855. In painting this complacent flock of sheep settled in a meadow near a body of water, Bonheur captured a placid moment. Sheep by the Sea demonstrates the artist’s commitment to direct observation from nature. The thickly applied paint provides texture that conveys the lushness of a verdant landscape at water’s edge. The informality of this rustic scene belies the detailed physiognomic studies of animals that Bonheur frequently sketched before executing a work in oil paint.

Although the Empress Eugénie of France commissioned Sheep by the Sea, Bonheur exhibited the painting at the Salon of 1867 before it entered her collection. The empress (like her contemporary, Queen Victoria) also patronized the renowned British artist Sir Edwin Landseer, whose sentimental paintings of domestic animals became popular among the upper classes in England and France. Yet, unlike Landseer’s animals, which play out human dramas, Bonheur’s animals appear within their natural habitats, not subjected to human laws and emotions. [National Museum of Women in the Arts]

The Highland Shepherd (1859)

Rosa Bonheur: The Highland Shepherd

The Sisters of Mercy (1859)

Henriette Browne: The Sisters of Mercy

Spanish Muleteers Crossing the Pyrenees (1857)

Rosa Bonheur: Spanish Muleteers Crossing the Pyrenees

The Horse Fair (1852-55)

Rosa Bonheur: The Horse Fair

This, Bonheur’s best-known painting, shows the horse market held in Paris on the tree-lined Boulevard de l’Hôpital, near the asylum of Salpêtrière, which is visible in the left background. For a year and a half Bonheur sketched there twice a week, dressing as a man to discourage attention. Bonheur was well established as an animal painter when the painting debuted at the Paris Salon of 1853, where it received wide praise. In arriving at the final scheme, the artist drew inspiration from George Stubbs, Théodore Gericault, Eugène Delacroix, and ancient Greek sculpture: she referred to The Horse Fair as her own "Parthenon frieze." [Metropolitan Museum]

Young Woman with Lace Shawl (1850s)

Adélaïde Salles-Wagner: Young Woman with Lace Shawl

Marie Eléonore Godefroy

Marie Eléonore Godefroy: Anne-Louise-Germaine Necker, 

Baroness de Staël-Holstein, known as Madame de Staël

Madame de Staël was a prominent, and quite accomplished, lady. Among other things, she was an enemy of Napoleon, and managed to survive. She traveled widely, was an author, befriended the Duke of Wellington, and involved herself in politics.

The Tilling (1844)

Rosa Bonheur: The Tilling

Rosa Bonheur focused on animals and farm labor in her work. If the date on this painting is accurate, she was 22 when it was done. She is considered to be the most famous female painter of the 19th century (at least, by Janson, H. W., Janson, Anthony F. History of Art. Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers. 6th edition. ISBN 0-13-182895-9, page 674).

Novella d'Andrea (exhibited 1843)

Marie-Éléonore Godefroid: Novella d'Andrea

The subject of the painting, Novella d'Andrea (born in 1312), was an Italian legal scholar and professor in law at the University of Bologna.

As the daughter of Giovanni d'Andrea, professor in Canon law at the University of Bologna, she was educated by her father and reportedly took over his lectures at the university during his absence. According to Christine de Pisan, she talked to the students through a curtain so they would not be distracted by her beauty. Her sister, Bettina d'Andrea, is reported to have taught law and philosophy at the university at Padua, where her husband Giovanni Da Sangiorgio was also employed, until her death in 1335. A family of unusually accomplished women, for the 14th century.

Visiting the Pie Maker (1822)

Elisabeth-Marie de Latour: Visiting the Pie Maker