The celebrated 19th century French painter and sculptor Rosa Bonheur was known for wearing men’s pants, shirts, and ties, as well as participating in traditionally masculine activities such as hunting and smoking. She lived with her lifelong partner, Nathalie Micas (left in photo), for over 40 years, eventually in a castle near Fontainebleau that she had purchased with her earnings as a painter. They lived with a menagerie of farm animals, dogs, cats, and birds—as well as a tamed lioness named Fathma.
Micas’s death in June 1889 coincided with the arrival of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show in Paris, as part of the Exposition Universelle, an event celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Storming of the Bastille and featuring the debut of the Eiffel Tower. In an effort to distract her from the tragedy of her partner’s death, Bonheur’s art dealer arranged for her to visit the event. At the time, Bonheur was likely the most famous living painter in Europe.
The American showman William Frederick “Buffalo Bill” Cody had founded Buffalo Bill’s Wild West in 1883. The show featured a large company of performers—including many Native Americans and famous historical western figures like Annie Oakley and Calamity Jane —who would demonstrate horseback riding and sharpshooting skills, as well as staging simulations of “wild west” scenes like the riding of the Pony Express, Native American attacks on wagon trains, and stagecoach robberies.
![Turin Strike Papyrus [Cat. 1880]](https://corvusfugitcom.files.wordpress.com/2020/09/turin-strike-papyrus-cat.-1880.jpg)
