Digital Collections

Rosa Bonheur to Monsieur A. Passy, 1863 November 18

Rosa Bonheur Correspondence

Rosa Bonheur to Monsieur A. Passy, 1863 November 18

Rosa Bonheur to Paul Chardin, 1870 August 6

Rosa Bonheur to Paul Chardin,
1870 August 6

Ink drawing, Artwork 26 April 1870 appears on the drawing. Humorous drawing of the incident of the pet deer attack on Chardin while he was visiting Rosa Bonheur.

Ink drawing, Artwork 26 April 1870

Ink drawing, Artwork
26 April 1870

Rosa Bonheur to Paul Chardin, undated

Rosa Bonheur to Paul Chardin,
undated

 

Paul Chardin, undated

[Sketch of Rosa Bonheur from
undated Paul Chardin letter]

Rosa Bonheur to Paul Chardin, 1870 September 1

Rosa Bonheur to Paul Chardin,
1870 September 1

Photograph of Rosa Bonheur wearing her Legion of Honor medal.About the Collection

Holding library: Bywaters Special Collections, Hamon Arts Library

View more collections held by Bywaters Special Collections

The Collection of Rosa Bonheur correspondence, 1808-1961 held in Bywaters Special Collections is an significant record of the artist’s correspondence and writings.

French painter Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899), acclaimed for her detailed paintings of animals, is considered one of the most well-known female artists of the 19th century. She was awarded the Cross of the Legion of Honor in 1865 by French Empress Eugénie. Bonheur had female life companions and was gender non-conforming, often dressing in men’s clothing. This collection consists primarily of letters by Rosa Bonheur written from 1861 until her death in 1899 to her artist and friend Paul Chardin. Included are letters to Paul Chardin written by Rosa’s brother, Isidore Bonheur and by Jeanne Micas (Nathalie), Rosa’s life companion.

Materials are handwritten in French.

A finding aid for the collection is available in TARO.


Items in SMU Libraries Digital Collections are digitized following the nCDS Digitization Guidelines and Procedures. Digital collections are created under the guidelines of the Digital Collections Workflow and Metadata Guidelines, or through specialized metadata profiles tailored for the collection.

Copyright usage terms vary throughout the collection. Each item contains information about usage terms. If SMU does not have the right to publish the item on the Internet, only the item's metadata will be available and the digitized object will be available on a restricted access basis. Such items may only be viewed on campus. When items are available for use, please cite Bywaters Special Collections, Southern Methodist University. A high-quality version of these files may be obtained for a fee by contacting bywatersspecialcollections@smu.edu.

For more information about the collection, please contact bywatersspecialcollections@smu.edu.