[1] Annals and Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. x. (seventh series), p. 309.
BONHAM, a town and the county-seat of Fannin county, Texas, U.S.A., about 14 m. S. of the Red river, in the north-east part of the state, and 70 m. N. of Dallas. Pop. (1890) 3361; (1900) 5042 (1223 being negroes); (1910), 4844. It is served by the Missouri, Kansas & Texas, and the Texas & Pacific railways. Bonham is the seat of Carlton College (Christian), a woman’s college founded in 1867; and its high school is one of the best in the state. It is a trading and shipping centre of an extensive farming territory devoted to the raising of live-stock and to the growing of cotton, Indian corn, fruit, &c. It has large cotton gins and compresses, a large cotton mill, flour mills, canning and ice factories, railway repair shops, planing mills and carriage works. The town was named in honour of J.B. Bonham, a native of South Carolina, who was killed in the Alamo. The first settlement here was made in 1836. The town was incorporated in 1850, and was re-incorporated in 1886.
BONHEUR [Marie Rosalie], ROSA (1822-1899), French painter, was born at Bordeaux on the 22nd of March 1822. She was of Jewish origin. Jacques Wiener, the Belgian medallist, a native of Venloo, says that he and Raymond Bonheur, Rosa’s father, used to attend synagogue in that town; while another authority asserts that Rosa used to be known in common parlance by the name of Rosa Mazeltov (a Hebrew term for “good luck,” Gallicé Bonheur). She was the eldest of four children, all of whom were artists—Auguste (1824-1884) painted animals and landscape; Juliette (1830-1891) was “honourably mentioned” at the exhibition of 1855; Isidore, born in 1827, was a sculptor of animals. Rosa at an early age was taught to draw by her father (who died in 1849), and he, perceiving her very remarkable talent, permitted her to abandon the business of dressmaking, to which, much against her will, she had been put, in order to devote herself wholly to art. From 1840 to 1845 she exhibited at the salon, and five times received a prize; in 1848 a medal was awarded to her. Her fame dates more especially from the exhibition of 1855; from that time Rosa Bonheur’s works were much sought after in England, where collectors and public galleries competed eagerly for them. What is chiefly remarkable and admirable in her work is that, like her contemporary, Jacques Raymond Brascassat (1804-1867), she represents animals as they really are, as she saw them in the country. Her gift of accurate observation was, however, allied to a certain dryness of style in painting; she often failed to give a perfect sense of atmosphere. On the other hand, the anatomy of her animals is always faultlessly true. There is nothing feminine in her handling; her treatment is always manly and firm. Of her many works we may note the following:—“Ploughing in the Nivernais” (1848), in the Luxembourg gallery; “The Horse Fair” (1853), one of the two replicas of which is in the National Gallery, London, the original being in the United States; and “Hay Harvest in Auvergne” (1835). She was decorated with the Legion of Honour by the empress Eugénie, and was subsequently promoted to the rank of “officer” of the order. After 1867 Rosa Bonheur exhibited but once in the salon, in 1899, a few weeks before her death. She lived quietly at her country house at By, near Fontainebleau, where for some years she had held gratuitous classes for drawing. She left at her death a considerable number of pictures, studies, drawings and etchings, which were sold by auction in Paris in the spring of 1900.
(H. Fr.)
BONHEUR DU JOUR, the name for a lady’s writing-desk, so called because, when it was introduced in France about 1760, it speedily became intensely fashionable. The bonheur du jour is always very light and graceful; its special characteristic is a raised back, which may form a little cabinet or a nest of drawers, or may simply be fitted with a mirror. The top, often surrounded with a chased and gilded bronze gallery, serves for placing small ornaments. Beneath the writing surface there is usually a single drawer. The details vary greatly, but the general characteristics are always traceable. The bonheur du jour has never been so delicate, so charming, so coquettish as in the quarter of a century which followed its introduction. The choicer examples of the time are inlaid with marqueterie, edged with exotic woods, set in gilded bronze, or enriched with panels of Oriental lacquer.