Rosa Bonheur's Real Achievement Wasn't on the Canvas

Rosa Bonheur made a career painting animals inside an art world built on conventions, artistic and otherwise, that were not built for her. Her technique held to the standards of her day; she was not an experimenter with paint. What carried her past the era's limits on women in the field was the strength of her personality and her sheer commitment to the work. It is a career worth marking less for a stylistic break than for a will that simply outlasted the barriers around it.

With reporting from The Collector.