by Tom Gurney
Tom Gurney BSc (Hons) is an art history expert with over 20 years experience
Published on December 5, 2025 / Updated on December 5, 2025
Email: tomgurney1@gmail.com / Phone: +44 7429 011000
Rosa Bonheur is one of the most famous animal painters in history.
She remains highly regarded for the precision of her scenes of rural life, which combined farmers toiling in the French sun with horses, cattle and other working animals.
Bonheur faced many challenges in her artistic life, but overcame them all through a strength of personality, perseverance and natural creative ability. As you will see from her drawings, her talent was honed over many years, but the final results were extraordinary.
This section focuses on the completed oil paintings that resulted from this incredible attention to detail. This index will bring together a complete list of known paintings currently attributed to Rosa Bonheur. You will discover items beyond her animal paintings, as her oeuvre was more diverse than many realise.
This was an artist who understood the intricate details of the animals in her paintings - their muscle balance, bone structure and even the way in which they moved. She combined studies of live and deceased animals in order to advance her skills are far as possible and eventually achieved great commercial success in France, UK and USA.
Information on Rosa Bonheur's brushwork, studio set up, use of composition and light and much more can be found underneath our comprehensive selection of her oil paintings below.
