Rosa Bonheur was one of the most famous female artists of the nineteenth century and widely regarded as the greatest animalière (animal painter) of her generation. At the start of her career, living in Paris, she studied the animals at the zoo in the Paris Jardin des Plantes and the dissection of animals in the slaughterhouses. In 1860 she moved to a chateau in the forest of Fontainebleau, where she kept her own menagerie which included lions. This sheet is composed of three handsome studies of a lion and lioness. It demonstrates her superb drawing skills as well as her knowledge of the animals’ anatomy and characteristics.