While Rosa Bonheur enjoyed great artistic success during her lifetime, her work has received surprisingly little attention over the last century. Born in Bordeaux in 1822, Bonheur was trained by her father, Raymond, who, as a member of the socialist movement the Saint-Simonians, believed in equality of the sexes and encouraged his daughter to pursue a career in painting. At only nineteen, Bonheur made her debut at the Paris Salon (1841), and twenty-five years later became the first woman to be awarded France’s prestigious Legion d’Honneur, presented to her in person by Empress Eugénie.

At the height of her career, Bonheur moved to the Château de By near Fontainebleau where she established a menagerie in the grounds of her new home. As well as lions – including the one shown here – she also kept gazelles, Icelandic ponies and yaks. Her honest and naturalistic depictions of animals (for which she was widely celebrated), owe much to her commitment to the study of anatomy; from a young age, Bonheur visited slaughterhouses, attended cattle markets and purchased animal parts from the butcher in order to dissect them. Here, Bonheur adds gravitas to the lion by depicting her subject in profile – a pose more commonly associated with royalty and the great leaders of antiquity.