To mark the bicentenary of the birth of Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899) in Bordeaux, the Musée des Beaux-Arts in her native city and the Musée d'Orsay, Paris, are organising a major retrospective of her work. The Château Musée Rosa Bonheur in Thomery (Seine-et-Marne), where the artist lived for almost half a century, is a guest partner in the exhibition. This anniversary has been included in the 2022 calendar of France Mémoire.

This major national and international event honours an extraordinary, innovative and inspiring artist. A true icon of women's liberation, Rosa Bonheur placed the living world at the heart of her work and her existence. She was committed to the recognition of animals in their uniqueness. With her great technical mastery, she was able to render both the anatomy and the psychology of animals. This exhibition allows the public to (re)discover the power and richness of her art, as well as her life as a free woman, which has become mythical, and her work, which is formidably popular in the United States and England.

This exhibition will be presented in 2022 in Bordeaux and then in Paris. It will take place in the Fine Arts Gallery and the north wing of the museum and will bring together some one hundred works - paintings, graphic arts, sculptures and documents - from the most prestigious public and private collections in Europe and the United States. With its subject matter and issues at the heart of current affairs, this exhibition is part of the international trend of exhibitions devoted to women artists and a renewed interest in the theme of animals, which will be honoured at the Fontainebleau Art History Festival in 2022.

A body of work that still resonates today

200 years after her birth, Rosa Bonheur's art and personality resonate with many societal issues that are relevant today more than ever: the place of women in art and society, homosexuality, the animal cause, rurality and ecology. The exhibition is accompanied by a cultural programme that crosses disciplines and projects from the educational and social fields, in line with the actions in favour of gender equality that the museum has been carrying out for the past six years. 

This retrospective is an opportunity for stimulating cultural partnerships, including the Mériadeck Library, the Mériadeck shopping centre, the Bordeaux Conservatory - Jacques Thibaud, the Fonds régional d'art contemporain Nouvelle-Aquitaine/MECA, initiator of the Vivantes! on women artists in the Nouvelle Aquitaine region, the Mollat-Station Ausone bookshop, the Bordeaux Science and Nature Museum, the Bordeaux Metropolitan Tourist Office, the Pôle d'Enseignement Supérieur de Musique et Danse Bordeaux Nouvelle-Aquitaine, as well as the Association des Amis de Rosa Bonheur and the Château de Fontainebleau. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue which is the first scientific publication to provide an overview of the many aspects of Rosa Bonheur's work.