Coinciding with the exhibition Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899), Musée d’Orsay, Paris, 18 October 2022 – 15 January 2023

Partners: AWARE (Archives for Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions), Paris; Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature; Musée d’Orsay and Musée de l’Orangerie.

Rosa Bonheur worked her way up to become the leading animal artist of her day. She built her life and work around animals, surrounding herself with them and even creating a sizeable menagerie. This proximity, as well as her many travels, allowed her to study them in depth. She was committed to the causes of animal welfare and animal protection, as well as to protecting the Fontainebleau forest.

Rosa Bonheur’s career and engagement act as a starting point for a reflection on artists’ attitudes towards animals in the period that spends from the Grammont law (1850) to the wake of World War I. The complex relationships between artists and animals, whether domesticated, livestock or wild, will be addressed. The symposium will explore the themes of animal companionship, care and protection, but also appropriation in the context of imperialism and colonialism. Whether painted, sculpted, engraved, drawn, lithographed, photographed or even filmed, these works will equally interrogate the place and representation of women artists in animal art and scientific professions alike during this period.

Register for 10 January at the Musée d’Orsay
Register for 11 January at the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature