WOMAN IN ART
has leaned the portfolio of drawings against the chair to make room for her little pet dog, who was ever sure of a welcoming caress.
Only a loving friend and a trained hand could give to the canvas that touch of natural ease that gives the expression of a speaking likeness.
The last painting from the brush of Rosa Bonheur hung near her portrait. She called it "The Steers,"—a group of the animals at rest under a stalwart oak. Though at rest, there was vitality in their very pose. You seem to hear the sigh of contentment from the fine beast standing in the foreground chewing his cud. A breeze seemed fingering the oak leaves, and peace was the message of the canvas.
A painter of unusual strength and grasp of mind and brush, she was emphatically a womanly woman in her home life, in her care and helpfulness to her parents, brothers, and sister, and she had survived them all.
A few words of hers seem to be a creed by which she did her splendid work. She has said:
"The ever-present desire to bring myself nearer to truth, and an incessant research after simplicity are my two guides. I have never grown tired of study. It is today, and has been during my whole life, a happiness to me, for it is with persistent work alone that we can approach the unsolved problems of ever-changing Nature, the problem which more than any other elevates our soul, and entertains in us thoughts of justice, of goodness, and of charity."
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