ANNA KLUMPKE

Anna Klumpke (American, 1856–1942), Rosa Bonheur, 1898. Oil on canvas, 46 1/8 x 38 5/8 in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Gift of the artist, in memory of Rosa Bonheur, 1922. 22.222

Anna Klumpke moved to Paris in 1877, studying intermittently at the Académie Julian between 1880 and 1888. She exhibited regularly at the Salon, where she received several awards for her portraits. In the 1890s she left Paris to work in the United States, returning to France in 1898 to paint a portrait of the famous artist Rosa Bonheur. Klumpke subsequently lived and worked with Bonheur, and the two women were devoted to one another. In 1907 she published Rosa Bonheur, Sa Vie Son Oeuvre. Klumpke was awarded Légion d’Honneur medals in 1924 and in 1936.

A fully illustrated catalogue, Women Artists in Paris, 1850–1900, has been published by the American Federation of Arts and Yale University Press. Along with an art-historical overview by curator Laurence Madeline, the catalogue includes essays by Jane R. Becker, collections management associate, Metropolitan Museum of Art; Richard Kendall, former curator at large, Clark Art Institute; Bridget Alsdorf, associate professor, History of Art, Princeton University; and Vibeke Hansen, curator, Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo.