Rosa Bonheur

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

The scant presence of women in the annals of art history prompts this glossy Portraits of Women Artists for Children series. Bonheur's (1822-1899) remarkably happy life story is told in straightforward fashion; especially winning are the matter-of-fact treatment of her lifelong friendship with another woman and the author's feeling for the delight the artist took in animals, which Turner poses as another challenge to the female stereotype. But a pedogogical tone prevails in both biographies, and Turner's message--that girls can grow up to be artists--is undermined by her groping efforts to explain what makes a painting great. The cause of art history is ill served by badly reproduced images in the Bonheur volume. O'Keeffe's (1887-1986) work is eminently reproducible, therefore showing that artist to better advantage, and she is characterized more vividly than is Bonheur, but both lives pale in these dutiful retellings. By failing to isolate and illumine the creative spark that drove each artist, Turner misses the salient point for young readers: O'Keeffe and Bonheur are important not because they were women who made it in a man's world, but because they painted brilliantly. Ages 6-10. (Oct.)

School Library Journal

ea. vol: 32p. photos. reprods. (Portraits of Women Artists for Children Series.). CIP. Little. Oct. 1991. Tr $15.95. Gr 4 Up-- In her brief introduction to O'Keeffe's life, Turner stresses the fact that, until recent years, women were not encouraged to become artists or permitted to attend the best schools of art. This theme--that O'Keeffe had to create her own style and establish her own place in the art world--is carried through in a rich, colorful biography. The reproductions chosen to illustrate her life are excellent. An early charcoal drawing shows how she developed her abstract style, while Evening Star III and Red Canna show her mastery of pure color. Other examples demonstrate her sense of pattern, and display her later work in New Mexico. Throughout, the succinct, clear prose stresses O'Keeffe's art, her search for ways to express her feelings, her love of nature, and her total subjection of all else to the study and the demands of a creative life. Gherman's thoughtful and carefully researched book (Atheneum, 1986) and Berry's Georgia O'Keeffe: Painter (Chelsea, 1989) are both useful, factual biographies. Turner, however, offers the best selection of full-color reproductions and a text that, while brief, engaging, and accessible to all readers, gives insight into the woman as artist, and highlights O'Keeffe's vision and amazing talent. Rosa Bonheur opens with a portrait of the artist as a young woman and ends with one of her at age 76. Throughout, there are are pictures of her artist-family, the French chateau that she shared with her lifelong friend Nathalie Micas, and some fine samples of her famous animal paintings. Readers should be drawn to the book by the full-color paintings of sheep, cows, birds, wild lions, and especially the reproduction of The Horse Fair. They will also enjoy the smoothly written story of the artist's largely happy and successful life. Turner writes with skill and sensitivity, and with this book the name of Rosa Bonheur is added to the small but growing list of juvenile titles dedicated to women in the arts. --Shirley Wilton, Ocean County College, Toms River, NJ