A most charming picture is drawn of the life of the Bonheur family in the years when Rosa was making her progressive steps. They lived in an humble house in the Rue Rumfort, the father, Auguste, Isidore, and Rosa all working in the same studio. She had many birds and a pet sheep. As the apartment of the Bonheurs was on the sixth floor, this sheep lived on the leads, and from time to time Isidore bore him on his shoulders down all the stairs to the neighboring square, where the animal could browse on the real grass, and afterward be carried back by one of the devoted brothers of his mistress. They were very poor, but they were equally happy. At evening Rosa made small models or illustrations for books or albums, which the dealers readily bought, and by this means she added to the family store for needs or pleasures. In 1841, when Rosa was nineteen years old, she first experienced the pleasures, doubts, and fears attendant upon a public exhibition of one's work. Two small pictures, called "Goats and Sheep" and "Two Rabbits," were hung at the Salon and were praised by critics and connoisseurs. The next year she sent three others, "Animals in a Pasture," "A Cow Lying in a Meadow," and "A Horse for Sale." She continued to send pictures to the Salon and to some exhibitions in other cities, and received several bronze and silver medals. In 1845 she sent twelve works to the Salon, accompanied by those of her father and her brother Auguste, who was admitted that year for the first time. In 1848 Isidore was added to the list, exhibiting a picture and a group in marble, both representing "A Combat between a Lioness and an African Horseman." And, finally, the family contributions were completed when Juliette, now Madame Peyrol, added her pictures, and the works of the five artists were seen in the same Exhibition. In 1849 Rosa Bonheur's "Cantal Oxen" was awarded the gold medal, and was followed by "Ploughing in the Nivernais," so well known the world over by engravings and photographs. When the medal was assigned her, Horace Vernet proclaimed her triumph to a brilliant assemblage, and also presented to her a magnificent vase of Sèvres porcelain, in the name of the French Government. This placed her in the first rank of living artists, and the triumph was of double value to her on account of the happiness it afforded her father, to see this, his oldest child, of whose future he had often despaired, taking so eminent a place in the artistic world. This year of success was also a year of sorrow, for before its end the old Raymond had died. He had been for some time the director of the Government School of Design for Girls, and, being freed from pecuniary anxiety, he had worked with new courage and hope. After her father's death Rosa Bonheur exhibited nothing for two years, but in 1853 she brought out her "Horse Fair," which added to her fame.