The child artist drew pictures of all these animals. She studied them as they ran or walked or lay down to rest.
When her little brothers were old enough to run about, they loved to follow their sister from place to place. Often they went with her to the roadside, where she made pictures for them in the sand with a pointed stick.
Sometimes her dogs came too and sat for their pictures. The passers-by stopped to see the rosy-cheeked little girl drawing animals and landscapes along the sandy way.
In the long winter evenings Rosa amused herself and her brothers by cutting pictures of animals and people from pieces of paper.
Paris earnest relatives absence bunch models galleries cherries pencil modeled contented studio
But this free and happy life came to an end all too soon. When Rosa was seven years old, the family moved to Paris, where they lived in small rooms. The street was crowded with houses, and there was no yard for the children to play in.
How Rosa longed for her old home and for the animals she loved. Sometimes she ran across the street to pet a wooden pig which stood just outside the door of a meat shop.
About this time a great sorrow came to the little Bonheur children. Their beautiful mother died, and then they were all sent away from home.
Poor little Rosa! She did not like to study or sew, and she was very unhappy in the girls' school to which she was sent. Her only pleasure was in visiting her father's studio. Here, if she could have a pencil, or a bit of clay, she was always contented.
How she begged to leave school and stay with her father! Her relatives thought this a foolish thing for her to do. "What would people think," they said, "to see a girl doing a boy's work?"
One day, when her father returned to the studio after a short absence, he found that Rosa had painted a bunch of cherries. He looked at her picture for a long time, and then he said, "If you can do as well as that, I will give you lessons."
"And I will cut off my hair and wear boy's clothes," said Rosa. "Then I can study with you, and no one will notice me." So she dressed like a boy and went everywhere with her father.
Lessons in drawing and painting now began in earnest. It was not long before she could help her father. Soon she was able to copy pictures in the famous picture galleries of Paris.