st her will, she had been
put, in order to devote herself wholly to art. From 1840 to 1845 she
exhibited at the salon, and five times received a prize; in 1848 a medal
was awarded to her. Her fame dates more especially from the exhibition
of 1855; from that time Rosa Bonheur's works were much sought after in
England, where collectors and public galleries competed eagerly for
them. What is chiefly remarkable and admirable in her work is that, like
her contemporary, Jacques Raymond Brascassat (1804-1867), she represents
animals as they really are, as she saw them in the country. Her gift of
accurate observation was, however, allied to a certain dryness of style
in painting; she often failed to give a perfect sense of atmosphere. On
the other hand, the anatomy of her animals is always faultlessly true.
There is nothing feminine in her handling; her treatment is always manly
and firm. Of her many works we may note the following:--"Ploughing in
the Nivernais" (1848), in the Luxembourg gallery; "The Horse Fair"
(1853), one of the two replicas of which is in the National Gallery,
London, the original being in the United States; and "Hay Harvest in
Auvergne" (1835). She was decorated with the Legion of Honour by the
empress Eugenie, and was subsequently promoted to the rank of "officer"
of the order. After 1867 Rosa Bonheur exhibited but once in the salon,
in 1899, a few weeks before her death. She lived quietly at her country
house at By, near Fontainebleau, where for some years she had held
gratuitous classes for drawing. She left at her death a considerable
number of pictures, studies, drawings and etchings, which were sold by
auction in Paris in the spring of 1900. (H. Fr.)

BONHEUR DU JOUR, the name for a lady's writing-desk, so called because,
when it was introduced in France about 1760, it speedily became
intensely fashionable. The bonheur du jour is always very light and
graceful; its special characteristic is a raised back, which may form a
little cabinet or a nest of drawers, or may simply be fitted with a
mirror. The top, often surrounded with a chased and gilded bronze
gallery, serves for placing small ornaments. Beneath the writing surface
there is usually a single drawer. The details vary greatly, but the
general characteristics are always traceable. The bonheur du jour has
never been so delicate, so charming, so coquettish as in the quarter of
a century which followed its introduction. The choicer exampl