Letters, III, 134. Roberts's statement seemed borne out by the success of Rosa Bonheur, the French landscape, history, and animal painter whose work Gambart vigorously promoted in Britain after 1854. After seeing Bourcairos Crossing the Pyrenees, one of three Bonheur paintings exhibited at the French Gallery in 1857, George Eliot wrote to Sara Hennell: "We went to see Rosa Bonheur's picture the other day. What power! That is the way women should assert their rights" (Letters, II, 377).Note 24 to Chapter 2 of the author's George Eliot and the Visual Arts, which Yale University Press published in a 1979. It has been included in the Victorian web with the kind permission of the author, who of course retains copyright.
Although George Eliot preferred to assert her rights through her work, Barbara Bodichon engaged in more direct forms of action as well. In 1856 she persuaded George Eliot to sign a petition urging Parliament to enact a law that would permit married women to own property. And the energetic artist later helped to enlist George Eliot as a founder of Girton College (Haight, pp. 204, 396-97). Another French woman painter promoted by Gambart and admired by George Eliot was Henriette Browne, whose Sisters of Mercy created a minor sensation when shown in London in August of 1859; see Maas, Gambart, p. 113, and Letters, III, 134.
Last modified 20 September 2000