BONHEUR, French family of artists

Raymond Bonheur (1796-1849) was a landscape and portrait painter, an artist and ardent Saint-Simonian. His daughter Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899), was well-known, both for her bronzes as well as her paintings. His son Auguste Bonheur (1824-1884) was a French painter of animals and bucolic scenes in landscapes. The name his younger son, Isidore-Jules Bonheur (1827-1901) is synonymous with the great animalier school of sculptors of the late 19th century, alongside Antoine-Louis Barye and Pierre-Jules Mene. Of great significance to siblings sculpting careers, their young sister, Juliette (1830-1891), married the bronze founder Hippolyte Peyrol. Peyrol was a master caster and his foundry in Paris is rightly considered one of the finest of the period. He cast the best works by both Isidore and Rosa.