Rosa Bonheur, a free and successful painter “around whom so many legends circulated”

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Rosa Bonheur with her dog Charley, circa 1898. ARCHIVES OF THE CHÂTEAU ROSA BONHEUR BY-THOMERY.
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Portrait The animal painter was able to free herself from the networks of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and the Salon to make her fortune.
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Here stands the Château de By. Located in a hamlet near Fontainebleau, this 15th - century stately estate, remodeled in the 17th and 18th centuries , proudly displays its half-timbering and turrets. When Rosa Bonheur, the great animal painter, acquired it in 1859, she became the first woman to purchase real estate in her own name using the sole fruits of her labor.
With its numerous outbuildings, its studio built by the architect Jules Saulnier and its park of more than 3 hectares, the artist is able to accommodate his entire "Noah's Ark" . Jacques the deer, Kiki the wild boar, Margot, Grisette and Panthère the mares, Bellotte, Pastour, Charbonnier, Gamine, Charley and Daisy the dogs, Farino, the white Angora cat, and even Fathma, his beloved lioness, roam freely there .
When she moves into this “…
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