Rosa delighted in birds, of which she had many in the studio; but it grieved her to see them confined. To her great joy, one of her brothers contrived a net, which he fastened to the outer side of the window, so that they could be safely let out of their cages. She had also a beautiful sheep, with long silky wool, the most docile and intelligent of quadrupeds, which she kept on the leads outside their windows, the leads forming a terrace, converted by her into a garden, gay with honeysuckles, cobeas, convolvulus, nasturtiums, and sweet-peas. As the sheep could not descend six flights of stairs, yet needed occasional exercise and change of diet, Isidore used to place it gravely on his shoulders, and carry it down to a neighboring croft, where it browsed on the fresh grass to its heart’s content, after which he would carry it back to its aerial residence. Thus carefully tended, the animal passed two years contentedly on the terrace, affording to Rosa and her brothers an admirable model. It was in the Fine Arts Exhibition of 1841 that Rosa Bonheur made her first appearance before the critical Areopagus of Paris, attracting the favorable notice both of connoisseurs and public, by two charming little groups of a goat, sheep, and rabbits. The following year she exhibited three paintings: “Animals in a Pasture,” “A Cow lying in a Meadow,” and “A Horse for Sale,” which attracted still more notice, the first being specially remarkable for its exquisite rendering of the atmospheric effects of evening, and its blending of poetic sentiment with bold fidelity to fact.