Lionlike Courage

Cover of Art Is a Tyrant: The Unconventional Life of Rosa Bonheur (2021) by Catherine Hewitt.
The work of French animal painter Rosa Bonheur (1822–1899) represents “not only a triumph for gender, but also for genre,” writes Catherine Hewitt in her biography Art Is a Tyrant: The Unconventional Life of Rosa Bonheur, out tomorrow in the US from Icon Books. At a time when few women became famous artists, Bonheur helped elevate “animal painting to a respected status, thus shat